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
Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts. Extroverts rule. This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin Well, we think that time “passes,” flows past us, but what if it is we who move forward, from past to future, always discovering the new? It would be a little like reading a book, you see.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men’s eyes.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare it to be wholly different from yourself.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin To think that realistic fiction is by definition superior to imaginative fiction is to think imitation is superior to invention.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin I don’t think ‘science fiction’ is a very good name for it, but it’s the name that we’ve got. It is different from other kinds of writing, I suppose, so it deserves a name of its own.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin A panda walks into a tea room and ordered a salad and ate it. Then it pulled out a pistol, shot the man in the next table dead, and walked out.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin as a writer you are free. You are about the freest person that ever was. Your freedom is what you have bought with your solitude, your loneliness.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin The book is all there, all at once, between its covers. But if you want to read the story and understand it, you must begin with the first page, and go forward, always in order. So the universe would be a very great book, and we would be very small readers.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin Life–evolution–the whole universe of space/time, matter/energy–existence itself–is essentially change.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin The world is in balance . To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin The danger in trying to do good is that the mind comes to confuse the intent of goodness with the act of doing things well.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin
Original quotes
From our community writers
Forgiveness comes after understanding & understanding comes after acceptance.
Tom MetcafeTom Metcafe Someday your pen will write a revolution. Until then, write your pain.
Fareena AliyaFareena Aliya Time is precious. So are the people in your life. So love and be loved. Because tomorrow is never promised.
Jenny AJenny A Thank you for still being there for yourself. For being strong. For being resilient. Keep going.
Yohan AcostaYohan Acosta There will never be a day, I am not thankful for the fire you brought to my life that still warms me to the bones.
Mark AnthonyMark Anthony You could have shook my whole world luckily I became aware, and I took a turn.
Emma SchippersEmma Schippers Be strong enough to bloom even in the storm.
Safna SulaimanSafna Sulaiman There is magic in the minuscule.
Holly DuxburyHolly Duxbury
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I don’t like a lot of things like [Iraq], I never did. Being in a position of celebrity and having your words carry such unnatural weight…
Al PacinoAl Pacino So I’ve been doing everything that has to do with being next to them, close to them.
Al PacinoAl Pacino I’m expressing something that I feel is a way to exercise my talent and help communicate a role as a human being in a movie, I will do that.
Al PacinoAl Pacino I guess it has to do with my tradition and being Italian, we’re very outgoing with our emotions.
Al PacinoAl Pacino Exercising is what I need for my metabolism and for a better sense of well-being.
Al RokerAl Roker Pakistan’s being an ally and helping the United States, we ought to show
Al GreenAl Green It’s a profession in which, the longer you stay, the closer you are to being fired.
Al McGuireAl McGuire I mean being a writer is like being a psychoanalyst, but you don’t get any patients.
Al AlvarezAl Alvarez