Sue

“There are two kinds of people in a church,” she said. “There are the people who go to be closer to what they love, and there are the people who go to hide from the things that scare them.”
― Kiyash Monsef, Once There Was

“And so I turned to the writers in this book to ask them to write a story they felt would honour Le Guin’s memory—not one that would take us back to the Hain or revisit the archipelago—but rather a new story of humanity and urgency and clarity. As they began to arrive, written by some who’d known Le Guin for years and others who’d only met her through the pages of her work, I began to think about something she said in a speech given at the 2014 National Book Awards where she talked about how hard times were coming and how we’d need writers who can see alternative ways to live, ways through the coming darkness, and towards freedom and hope. A time for resistance and for art. The stories of Revolution in the Heart are an answer to that call. Stories written in a time of need, when the world seems to be becoming darker and more difficult and more challenging, answering with hope and thought and caring and decency. I hope you love them all as much as I do.”
― Jonathan Strahan, Revolution in the Heart

“As the sun brightened above the eastern mists, the tiny wheeling flecks in the air that Arren watched seemed to sparkle, like gold-dust shaken in water, or dust-motes in a sunbeam. And then Arren realized that they were dragons. As Lookfar approached the islands, Arren saw the dragons soaring and circling on the morning wind, and his heart leapt up with them with a joy, a joy of fulfillment, that was like pain. All the glory of mortality was in that flight. Their beauty was made up of terrible strength, utter wildness, and the grace of reason. For these were thinking creatures, with speech and ancient wisdom: in the patterns of their flight there was a fierce, willed concord. Arren did not speak, but he thought: I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Santa had once existed. He died when Violette stopped believing in him. Every year, millions of Santas are born and killed at the same time. Every child must kill Santa on the road to adulthood. Little do children know, Santa is just the beginning. There are plenty of others after him, whom children kill without a sound. Without knowing. That is why every child gets lonelier and lonelier as they grow up. The vacancy cannot simply be filled by another human being. People are not as kind or loyal as those creatures of imagination whom the child has killed. An empty heart is the penalty for killing those who’ve stuck with them.”
― Cheon Seon-ran, The Midnight Shift