"Fantasy is not antirational, but pararational; not realistic but surrealistic, a heightening of reality. In Freud's terminology, it employs primary no...

So rest a while, we can talk in the cool of the evening. Or the cool of the morning. There 's seldom as much hurry as I used to think there was." -HawkWho had been ArchmageThe Other Wind
~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~












So rest a while, we can talk in the cool of the evening. Or the cool of the morning. There 's seldom...
Show MoreMore Ursula K. Le Guin quotes
"A lot of people still maintain genre prejudice. I still meet matrons who tell me kindly that their children enjoyed my books but of course they never ...
"In this he saw that Ogion had been right: the shadow could not draw on his power, so long as he was turned against it.
"What is fantasy? On one level, of course, it is a game: a pure pretense with no ulterior motive whatever. It is one child saying to another child, “Le...
"I know perfectly well he's a god, too. But what I think is he'll be much godlier after he's dead.
"I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing fr...
"Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light? This sorcery is not a game we play for pleasure or for praise. Think of th...
"The part of the tradition that I knew best was mostly written (or rewritten for children) in England and northern Europe. The principal characters wer...
"Oh, Hank," Susan whispered, "their wings are furry.""Oh, James," Harriet whispered, "their hands are kind.
"Let us consider Elfland as a great national park, a vast and beautiful place where a person goes by himself, on foot, to get in touch with reality in ...
"A fantasy is a journey. It is a journey into the subconscious mind, just as psychoanalysis is. Like psychoanalysis, it can be dangerous; and it will c...
"It's a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you've been to all the places you don't need to be.
"The best I can say, it's like this. A man's in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell ... It's hard and strong, that shell, and it's all full of him. ...
"Her concern with landscapes and living creatures was passionate. This concern, feebly called, "the love of nature" seemed to Shevek to be something mu...
"For discipline is the channel in which our acts run strong and deep; where there is no direction, the deeds of men run shallow and wander and are wast...