It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.
Interpretation
Writers have a responsibility for the impact of their words.
Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes the belief that words are not merely tools for communication; they are powerful actions that can shape thoughts, emotions, and societal structures. This perspective calls for writers to acknowledge the weight of their words and the consequences that arise from their written work, advocating for a thoughtful and ethical approach to writing.
In practice
During a writing workshop, you might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of ethical writing.
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
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.
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.
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
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.
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. βDo they expect students not to be anarchists?β he said. βWhat else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Amos Oz is one of the finest novelists of this entire period. MY MICHAEL is a beautiful work of great depth and in some indescribable way lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country's people as much as a moving love story.
All literature, is, finally autobiographical.
Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.
The light that radiates from the great novels time can never dim, for human existence is perpetually being forgotten by man and thus the novelists' discoveries, however old they may be, will never cease to astonish.
The things that the novel does not say are necessarily more numerous than those it does say and only a special halo around what is written can give the illusion that you are reading also what is not written.
Browse Amazon reviews, and you'll see a surprising number of readers who believe one novel can summarize a country, its culture, and its people.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.