Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

It came home to me indelibly that I was never going to change anything in America by walking around carrying a sign. It was a great revelation. It saved me a lot of anxiety and a lot of wasted energy.

I don't often get involved with campaigns at all.

I was an activist long before I even entertained the possibility of being an actor.

You know, I was a community activist, so I'm used to standing out in front of an elected official's office and protesting.

People have to carry on with their lives, so only so much direct action can take place. Anti-nuclear activism may look dormant from appearances, but it’s there, like magma. It’s still brewing, and the next trigger might be another big protest or political change,

I'd come from a background in New York of picketing and protesting.

Even though I grew up and I didn't always like getting dragged to the meetings or the rallies or the speeches, I developed a very strong respect for participating in a democratic process.

When I was 19 or 20, the way I was an activist was by regularly meeting with groups, going to protests, and being there on the ground.

I am not naive enough to believe that voting is the only way to bring about transformational change, just as I know that protest alone is not the sole solution to the challenges we face.

Some people see protesting as a bit of a dirty thing, and certainly the idea of getting arrested was not on people's radar.

I was never the feisty kind of activist.

I'm always the one with the activist friends. I've been an activist very little.

I'm very politically active, but that has nothing to do with my charity.

I am not a lobbyist. I am not a political activist. I am not a leader, as far as I'm concerned.

I have donated money to campaigns. And I have been known to take to the street in protest. But I am more committed to my immediate politics than general politics.

Traditionalists will have to master techniques of sustained activism formerly monopolized by the left.

Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we'll begin to change things.

If you don't like what's going on, you have to get involved.

You should not neglect agitation; each of you should make it his task.

We are at the point where we can mobilize all of this righteous indignation into a powerful mass movement.

I'm a young person; sometimes I'm political, sometimes I'm not.

I don't even really see sit-ins and marches as passive. I see them as quite assertive. I see those as emotionally aggressive tactics. I see people putting their lives on the line and being bold and brave.

Activism isn't something you just kind of get involved in and then turn your back on it.

I think voting is the lowest form of political action that you can do. A lot of times, it keeps people from doing stronger things.

I don't necessarily see myself as an activist, running down the street and knocking at every door.