The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The best manual we have. The most useful guide to the country we're visiting, life.
Ursula K. Le GuinWe live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.
Ursula K. Le GuinDo you know how to read?" "No. It is one of the black arts." He nodded. "But a useful one," he said.
Ursula K. Le GuinStories are what death thinks he puts an end to. He can't understand that they end in him, but they don't end with him.
Ursula K. Le GuinThe menopause is probably the least glamorous topic imaginable; and this is interesting, because it is one of the very few topics to which cling some shreds and remnants of taboo. A serious mention of menopause is usually met with uneasy silence; a sneering reference to it is usually met with relieved sniggers. Both the silence and the sniggering are pretty sure indications of taboo.
Ursula K. Le Guin