“The time he'd cheated on Syl, Syl had seen through him, broken off their engagement, and cheated on him with Charles, which… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
With fiction, and also with nonfiction that you can take your time doing, you have a much better chance of reaching across… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
In real life, when you have an emotional experience, it's never just because of the thing that's been said. There's the backstory.… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When we talk about adversity, this is the moment when character really gets tested. When things aren't going the way you want… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
It seemed to me, in some way, especially when you're looking back at distant historical events, the "Truth" with a capital "T"… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I heard Zen teacher one time talking about abortion, and he was saying the way that abortion makes bad karma is any… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
One of the sad things about this political season is that it allows [requires] us to get behind our big "Liberal" or… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
It's a time when a lot of principle virtues are being tested. Do we still believe in the truth? Do we still… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“And next time we hear someone saying something like, 'We are pursuing this strategy because other strategies, when we had considered them,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
What I'm primarily saying,' he says, 'is that this is a time for knowledge assimilation, not backstabbing. We learned a lesson, you… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Some of Buddhist texts say that, in the moment after you die, you think of New Jersey and you go to New… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
From across the woods, as if by common accord, birds left their trees and darted upward. I joined them, flew amount them,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
[In the moment of reading writer and reader] are both briefly their best selves, or at least better selves. A flawed human… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The beginning [of Lincoln in the Bardo] is strange, and I did a lot of work calibrating that so that a reader… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Success is like a mountain in front of you that keeps growing. If you're not careful, it will take up your whole life. — George Saunders Copy Share
“Wow wow wow is all I can say! Remember how I always buy lunchtime Scratch-Off ticket? Have I said? Maybe did not say? Well,… — George Saunders Copy Share
“None of it was real; nothing was real. Everything was real; inconceivably real, infinitely dear. These and all things started as nothing, latent within… — George Saunders Copy Share
“We must see God not as a Him (some linear rewarding fellow) but an IT, a great beast beyond our understanding, who wants something… — George Saunders Copy Share
America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please,… — George Saunders Copy Share
In my case, when I am trying to be "kind" I often default in a sort of toothless loving-all stance that is, actually, not… — George Saunders Copy Share
Whatever your supposed politics are - left, right - if you put it in a human connection, most people will rise to the occasion… — George Saunders Copy Share
“A Clinton staffer tells me his theory. Think about Frank Sinatra, he says: born to sing. Think about Willie Mays: born to play ball.… — George Saunders Copy Share
We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish. — George Saunders Copy Share
“You were torturing a cat," she says. "With a freaking prod." "A prod I built myself in metal shop," he says. "But of course… — George Saunders Copy Share
“Rachel got up and did this happy little shuffle, like she was some cheerful farmer chick who'd just stepped outside to find the hick… — George Saunders Copy Share
What America is, to me, is a guy doesn't want to buy, you let him not buy, you respect his not buying. A guy… — George Saunders Copy Share
What good the prophet in the wilderness may do is incremental and personal. It's good for us to hear someone speak the irrational truth.… — George Saunders Copy Share
We're in the transition between birth and death. But the one that people often know about is the transition between the moment of death… — George Saunders Copy Share
You don't want to be that parent - the one who dresses his kid in a cloth sack when all the other kids are… — George Saunders Copy Share
![“In real life, when you have an emotional experience, it's never just because of the thing that's been said. There's the backstory. It's like [Ernest] Hemingway's iceberg theory - the current emotional moment is the tip of the iceberg and all of the past is the seven-eighths of the iceberg that's…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/999/george-saunders-317_currents_in-real-life-when-you-have-an-emotional_2358315.jpg)
![“One of the sad things about this political season is that it allows [requires] us to get behind our big "Liberal" or "Conservative" banner and forget, for a time, that the big problems in our country have been around a long time and have been batted back and forth, caused and exacerbated, by both…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/b10/george-saunders-317_back-and-forth_one-of-the-sad-things-about-this-politic_939252.jpg)
![“[In the moment of reading writer and reader] are both briefly their best selves, or at least better selves. A flawed human being writes something and 60 years later a reader picks up the book and something in them rises to meet it.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/538/george-saunders-317_best-self_in-the-moment-of-reading-writer-and-read_1635082.jpg)
![“The beginning [of Lincoln in the Bardo] is strange, and I did a lot of work calibrating that so that a reader with a certain level of patience would get through it and in the nick of time start to figure out what was going on. In a short book, you can do that.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/9f9/george-saunders-317_beginning_the-beginning-of-lincoln-in-the-bardo-is_3025267.jpg)
