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Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.
Ursula K. Le Guin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that closure, such as finishing a book, can bring clarity and peace of mind.

Ursula K. Le Guin's quote reflects the idea that engaging deeply with a book can lead to profound thoughts and emotions, but once the story concludes and the book is closed, a sense of sanity and clarity often returns. It's a commentary on how temporary immersion in narratives allows for reflection and understanding, only to be interrupted by reality when the engagement ends.

Themes

SanityBooksClosureNarrativeReflection

In practice

Example use cases

During a TED Talk about the importance of literature in mental health, one could use this quote.

More from Ursula K. Le Guin

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
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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.
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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.
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The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
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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.
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When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. β€œDo they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. β€œWhat else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
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