“If no one is expecting much, it’s not hard to exceed their expectations.”
” ‘Don’t try to be an author,’ she said as we stood outside a lecture hall in the bitter cold. ‘You cannot control that. Instead, try to be a writer. And to do that, you must write. That’s it. It’s very simple. Why don’t people understand that?’ The words came out in a tumble and her breath, mixing with the frigid air, turned to crystal.”
Some gems from a solid piece featured in Granta by Alison Smith (“Her Left Hand, The Darkness“) about the week she spent with Ursula K. Le Guin in 1988 . I haven’t read nearly enough of Le Guin’s stuff, but I need to get on it. Sound advice up above. I wish I could follow it more dutifully.
Ryan L. Purdy 