So, good news/bad news: good news that I'm progressing; bad news that life is short and art is long. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I try to keep my artistic opinions not so much "to myself" but "on myself." — George Saunders Copy Share Image
My artistic approach is that you're supposed to be a little baffled. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“A story is a really weird art object that should contain life but not be enslaved by the banality.” — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I often wonder if there are certain areas of real life that are roped off, with a sign saying, "Art, don't come… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I've had the thought that a person's 'artistic vision' is really just the cumulative combination of whatever particular stances he has sincerely… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Even when the faith goes away, there's that space where you crave something bigger than yourself. For me, that's kind of where… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think people have come to expect that in artistic representation; that every work of art should be a work of extravagant… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I find that the great artists I've met are people who are so playfully invested in their process that, even if it… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The idea is that what an artist lives through should broaden his notion of what it is possible for a human being… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I often think about image, and image is something that - but in truth, the real artistic process, as I've understood it,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
A work of art is something produced by a person, but is not that person — it is of her, but is… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Art is not some inessential frippery - it is the nation's means of intelligently regarding itself. To cripple or stigmatize the arts… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Now I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The artist's job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery. To intuit it, and recognize that the story-germ has some… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm not sure I would call it agony but there is a kind of cyclic frustration. You get one story right and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
For me, the game would be to assume a very intelligent reader who can extrapolate a lot from a little. And that's… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
In art, and maybe just in general, the idea is to be able to be really comfortable with contradictory ideas. In other… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind and… — 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
