Ursula K. Le Guin

Choire Sicha interviewed Ursula K. Le Guin for Interview magazine. Part of their dialogue:

CHOIRE SICHA: Can anyone be a writer? I used to have strong opinions about this, and I feel like I've lost them along the way.

URSULA K. LE GUIN: You want strong opinions? Anybody can write. You know, one of my daughters teaches writing at a community college. She teaches kids how to put sentences together, and then make the sentences hang together so that they can express themselves in writing as well as they do in speaking. Anybody with a normal IQ can manage that. But saying anybody can be a writer is kind of like saying anybody can compose a sonata. Oh, forget it! In any art, there is an initial gift that had to be there. I don't know how big it has to be, but it's got to be there.

SICHA: You can't labor your way into being a poet, can you?

LE GUIN: No. You just can't. But that's not to say that being a poet doesn't take a hell of a lot of work.

SICHA: It really doesn't seem that rewarding. Is that a terrible thing to say?

LE GUIN: I think there are writers who don't enjoy writing, and I feel sorry for them. I love it. I don't care how hard the work is. I would rather be...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue