Writer Quotes by George Saunders

I read to make myself feel awake.

— George Saunders

I don't really write beautifully naturally, unlike some people.

— George Saunders

I always describe writing a story as throwing bowling pins in the air and then catching them.

— George Saunders

In fiction, conceptualizing, I've found, produces dull and over-controlled text.

— George Saunders

I know that my only chance at any kind of depth or profundity is to linger within the story, trying to make…

— George Saunders

I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations.

— George Saunders

Sometimes I think fiction exists to model the way God might think of us, if God had the time and inclination to…

— George Saunders

All along, my mantra was: Don't write unless it contributes to the emotion, and do anything you do in service of the…

— George Saunders

I'm always nice when I do drugs. But, you know, I'm nicer on the drug called "writing."

— George Saunders

I think if someone could demonstrate to me that fiction did no good, I would still do it, because I think it…

— George Saunders

If a writer understands his work as something that originates with him but then, with any luck, gets away from him, then…

— George Saunders

When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world…

— George Saunders

I don't know about transformation. But scientifically you can say: Well, it doesn't seem to hurt anybody. Personally I've been cheered by…

— George Saunders

The greatest thing about writing a book is that at first it's all inchoate, but the more you work on it, the…

— George Saunders

The writer, in order to proceed, is theoretically trying to predict where his complex skein of language and image has left his…

— George Saunders

[Lincoln in the Bardo] is not a long book. And that meant I could obsess over it and live in it both…

— George Saunders

I'm always aware of writing around things I can't do, and I've come to think that that's actually what 'style' is -…

— George Saunders

As a writer I'm essentially just trying to impersonate a first-time reader, who picks up the story and has to decide, at…

— George Saunders

The only thing I might have noticed [and this is pretty anecdotal] is that there is some tendency to need to be…

— George Saunders

You don't want to spend your life writing about stuff that doesn't matter. You want to try to pull out of the…

— George Saunders

That underscored this idea that when we're reading a book or writing a book, you're in an act of co-creation. The reader…

— George Saunders

My theory for nonfiction is that nobody can be free of some kind of conceptions about whatever story they're writing. But if…

— George Saunders

So for me the approach has become to go into a story not really sure of what I want to say, try…

— George Saunders

I think in our time, you know, so much of the information we get is pre-polarized. Fiction has a way of reminding…

— George Saunders

To me, the process of writing is just reading what I've written and - like running your hand over one of those…

— George Saunders

If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk…

— George Saunders

You didn't plan to write a story; it just happened. Well, it could be argued that the next thing you should do…

— George Saunders

All I really know in nonfiction is that when I come home, I've got all these notes and I'm trying to figure…

— George Saunders

“How, then, to proceed? My method is: I imagine a meter mounted in my forehead, with “P” on this side (“Positive”) and…

— George Saunders

“A novel is just a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.”

— George Saunders

When I write I know that I'm going to have to produce 40 percent more than I need.

— George Saunders

I think that fiction has a part to play in urging us, as a species, toward compassion,

— George Saunders

I remember reading The Bluest Eye when I was a young parent, and something opened in me. That's the highest aspiration.

— George Saunders

While I'm doing [writing], I don't feel it.I don't think that's a failing. I think it's just a feature. Like, a feature…

— George Saunders

Fiction is open to whoever comes in the door, as long as you come in energetically.

— George Saunders

That seems to be the definition of 'novel' for me: a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.

— George Saunders

I've always wanted to write energetic, atypical sentences, i.e., sentences that were not normal or bland.

— George Saunders

It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't happened anymore.

— George Saunders

There are books that I read years ago that enlivened things in me that haven't died yet.

— George Saunders

“But hereby resolve to write in this book at least twenty minutes a night. (If discouraged, just think of how much will…

— George Saunders