I have become very critical of the whole book award system and could preach on that subject for quite a while, but I do know what an award can mean to a writer early in her career. It can give an essential validation.
Ursula K. Le GuinThe island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.
Ursula K. Le GuinPrimitiveness and civilization are degrees of the same thing. If civilization has an opposite, it is war.
Ursula K. Le Guin