quote · Legacy record
It could be a thousand things, distractions, worries;but very often I think what keeps a writer from finding the words is that she grasps at them too soon, hurries, grabs. She doesn’t wait for the wave to come in and break. She wants to write because she’s a writer; she wants to say this, and tell people that, and show people something else — things she knows, her ideas, her opinions, her beliefs, important things — but she doesn’t wait for the wave to come and carry her beyond all the ideas and opinions, to where you cannot use the wrong word.
It could be a thousand things, distractions, worries;but very often I think what keeps a writer from finding the words is that she grasps at them too soon, hurries, grabs. She doesn’t wait for the wave to come in and break. She wants to write because she’s a writer; she wants to say this, and tell people that, and show people something else — things she knows, her ideas, her opinions, her beliefs, important things — but she doesn’t wait for the wave to come and carry her beyond all the ideas and opinions, to where you cannot use the wrong word.
Approximate author period: c. 1973 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Ursula K. Le Guin
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1973 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1929 to 2018; Wikidata Q181659, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181659 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 332904; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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