It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading novels allows us to escape reality while also facilitating a subtle transformation in our perspectives.
In this quote, Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes the paradoxical nature of reading fiction. While we engage with narratives that may be purely fictional and nonsensical, we allow ourselves to immerse in these stories, which can lead to profound changes in our understanding and perception of the world. Even if we can't articulate precisely what we've learned from these experiences, the act of reading can alter our thoughts and feelings, making us reflect on our own lives and beliefs.
Themes
ReadingFictionChangeTransformationLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the impact of literature on personal growth.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes →Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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