Grieving, like being blind, is a strange business; you have to learn how to do it. We seek company in mourning, but after the early bursts of tears, after the praises have been spoken, and the good days remembered, and the lament cried, and the grave closed, there is no company in grief. It is a burden borne alone.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
URSULA K. LE GUIN
Ursula K. Le Guin on being
Ursula K. Le Guin161 quotes“Grieving, like being blind, is a strange business; you have to learn how to do it. We seek company in mourning, but after the early bursts of tears, after the praises have been spoken, and the good days remembered, and the lament cried, and the grave closed, there is no company in grief. It is a burden borne alone.”
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
For all their restlessness, men are who they are; once they put on the man’s toga they will not change again; so they make a virtue of that rigidity and resist whatever might soften it and set them free.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it… By using words well they strengthen their souls.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin To claim power over what you do not understand is not wise, nor is the end of it likely to be good.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin What good is music? None … and that is the point. To the world and its states and armies and factories and Leaders, music says, ‘You are irrelevant’; and, arrogant and gentle as a god, to the suffering man it says only, ‘
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people .
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin While we read a novel, we are insane-bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren’t there, we hear their voices… Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin Either we will establish an ecological society or society will go under for everyone, irrespective of his or her status.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin The light is the left hand of darkness.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin First sentences are doors to worlds.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin
Original quotes
From our community writers
Thoughts on a tapestry. Colour or black and white. A brush, a pen, A flash of light. Ideas flowing soon, about to take flight.
Gerard GleesonGerard Gleeson Like deep water, she was silent. His lips tasted of salt. He was both addicting and bitter all at once.
MoomerMoomer Always show kindness and love to others. Your words might be filling the empty places in someone else heart.
Alexander KandovAlexander Kandov And I would lie on your chest for hours and dream about the world in your arms but your thoughts were in another world.
Ani ShahverdyanAni Shahverdyan Your smile and your laughter lit my whole world.
Ranata SuzukiRanata Suzuki Often all we can do is breathe, even that can be hard sometimes.
Julia Kellogg HenryJulia Kellogg Henry I am addicted to your madness drunk on your toxic love. Infect me with your poison, lets make storms rage above.
Laura Natoli-KearneyLaura Natoli-Kearney The more you fail, recover, and improve, the better you are as a person.
Laura CleggLaura Clegg
Meet the writers
More on being
If there is a supreme being, he’s crazy.
Marlene DietrichMarlene Dietrich I think people don’t realize how little of being an artist is making art.
MitskiMitski People won’t want powers being handed back from bureaucrats in Brussels to be given to bureaucrats in Britain.
Liz TrussLiz Truss The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency.
Quentin CrispQuentin Crisp Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
T. Harv EkerT. Harv Eker I simply haven’t the nerve to imagine a being, a force, a cause which keeps the planets revolving in their orbits and then suddenly stops in order to give me a bicycle with three speeds.
Quentin CrispQuentin Crisp If I have any talent at all, it is not for doing but for being.
Quentin CrispQuentin Crisp Fashion is a way of not having to decide who you are. Style is deciding who you are and being able to perpetuate it.
Quentin CrispQuentin Crisp