“And I did nothing, nothing but try to hide from the horror of dying." He stopped, for saying the truth aloud was unendurable. It was not shame that stopped him, but fear, the same fear. He knew now why this tranquil life in sea and sunlight on the rafts seemed to him like an after-life or a dream, unreal. It was because he knew in his heart that reality was empty: without life or warmth or color or sound: without meaning. There were no heights or depths. All this lovely play of form and light and color on the sea and in the eyes of men, was no more than that, a playing of illusions on the shallow void.”

American author

Ursula K. Le Guin was an American author, active from the late 1950s into the early twenty-first century. She is best known for speculative fiction, especially the science fiction set in her Hainish universe and the fantasy series Earthsea. Her first work appeared in 1959, and her career lasted nearly sixty years. Over that time she wrote more than twenty novels and more than a hundred short stories, along with poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Although she was often described as a science fiction writer, she said she would rather be known as an American novelist.