42 Quotes by Ursula K. Le Guin about Writing

  • Author Ursula K. Le Guin
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    A related point: The job of the imagination, in making a story from experience, may be not to gussy the story up but to tone it down. The fact is, the world is unbelievably strange and human behavior is frequently so weird that no kind of narrative except farce or satire can handle it. The function of the storyteller's imagination sometimes is simply to make it more plausible.

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  • Author Ursula K. Le Guin
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    Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive … But our society, being troubled and bewildered, seeking guidance, sometimes puts an entirely mistaken trust in [science fiction authors], using them as prophets and futurologists.

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  • Author Ursula K. Le Guin
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    Amazing Stories Mag: What does your writing process look like?Ursula K. Le Guin: It looks like a woman sitting at a desk, or staring out a window, or cooking dinner, or waking up in the morning, or whatever. You know what a ground bass is in music? A theme that keeps going on underneath, no matter what else is happening on top of it? Writing is the ground bass of my existence.

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  • Author Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Quote

    If you cannot or will not imagine the results of your actions, there’s no way you can act morally or responsibly. Little kids can’t do it; babies are morally monsters — completely greedy. Their imagination has to be trained into foresight and empathy. [It's the writer's] pleasant duty is to ply the reader’s imagination with the best and purest nourishment that it can absorb.

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  • Author Ursula K. Le Guin
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    The social function of narrative is not limited to 'primitive' people sitting around the fire telling each other where Fire came from and why they're sitting around it.

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