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 you want your writing to be taken seriously, don't marry and have kids, and above all, don't die. But if you have to die, commit suicide. They approve of that.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously emphasizes the sacrifices and societal judgments faced by writers, especially women, regarding personal choices.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote reflects the struggles of writers who often face societal expectations that conflict with their creative pursuits. It suggests that personal commitments like marriage and parenthood might be seen as distractions that detract from one's serious writing, while also touching on the darker undertones of societal approval surrounding tragic outcomes for artists. Through sarcasm, Le Guin critiques how society views the life choices of writers, particularly women, as they navigate their careers and personal lives.
Themes
WritingSocietySacrificeCreativityLife ChoicesJudgment
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, this quote can be shared to stimulate discussion on the challenges writers face.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes →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.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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
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