“I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth. The only truth I can understand or express is, logically defined, a lie. Psychologically defined, a symbol. Aesthetically defined, a metaphor.”
― The Left Hand of Darkness
― The Left Hand of Darkness
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
― The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
― The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
“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. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.”
― The Tombs of Atuan
― The Tombs of Atuan
“Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books.”
― The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
― The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
“But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them.”
― A Wizard of Earthsea
― A Wizard of Earthsea
irem’s 2025 Year in Books
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