Influences
When asked about her influences, she replied; "Once I learned to read, I read everything. I read all the famous fantasies -- Alice in Wonderland, and Wind in the Willows, and Kipling. I adored Kipling's Jungle Book. And then when I got older I found Lord Dunsany. He opened up a whole new world -- the world of pure fantasy. And ... Worm Ouroboros. Again, pure fantasy. Very, very fattening. And then my brother and I blundered into science fiction when I was 11 or 12. Early Asimov, things like that. But that didn't have too much effect on me. It wasn't until I came back to science fiction and discovered Sturgeon -- but particularly Cordwainer Smith. ... I read the story "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," and it just made me go, "Wow! This stuff is so beautiful, and so strange, and I want to do something like that." Ursula is also influenced by books on Greek Mythology such as The God Beneath the Sea, written by Edward Blishen and Leon Garfield.
Read more about this topic: Ursula K. Le Guin
Famous quotes containing the word influences:
“The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself to all the influences of the places which condense centuries of human greatness is only a man in search of excellence.”
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