I understand what something short should be like. I understand beauty in that form. If I start extending, somehow I kind of… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If I can be more efficient, I'm actually being more respectful to the reader, which then implies a greater intimacy with the… — 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… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring it forth, it will destroy… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think if someone could demonstrate to me that fiction did no good, I would still do it, because I think it… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm very happy - if I can do even a little bit of work to get the short story out more, I'm… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Whatever happens, we can deal with it if we admit that it's happening and so on. So to be comfortable with what… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Even if something within me is ugly, writing is a pretty good place to play with that thing and to begin to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Whatever happens when we die, it would be really weird if it was what we had expected. Even if you were a… — 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
I'm turning 58, and you get that kind of weird, old-guy feeling of you don't have an infinite number of years left… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The thing I've discovered that is a help is that there isn't a simple virtue or a simple vice. They're always connected.… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I am always considering the reader. Although this is admittedly kind of odd: Which reader? On what day? In what mood? For… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If I find myself being too earnest and sentimental and hyperbolic and simplistic, which is definitely a tendency I have, then I… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If I go to the coffee shop and have a nice interaction with the barista, I don't know what that does for… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When you're embarking on a piece of writing, the anxiety is just too much, especially when you're young and you're trying to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
My general approach to writing fiction is that you try to have as few conceptual notions as possible and you just respond… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The switch that I'd like to throw on is the one that says, "Look, you're a human being whose mind is every… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I really wanted to be allowed to the [writer's] table. So it makes me happy to be at the table. It sounds… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality - your soul, if you will - is as bright and shining as… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If you have a friend, what's the best way you can experience her beauty? It's to really accept her. She's weird in… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
In a sense my whole life as a writer is trying to find structural ways, or formal ways, to permit that outflowing… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
As for "toothy kindness" - I think all traditions are full of this sort of tough kindness. If someone is on a… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I am trying to remember that things have certainly been crazier in human history and they may get crazier here and now,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If you could press a button and your ego investment was less, the toothache would be less. Or less tragic at least. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Life is short, very short, and what are we doing here if not trying to become more generous and loving? — George Saunders Copy Share Image
In a certain way, we're always toggling back and forth between the absolute and the relative, if that makes sense. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I feel nervous because I revere [Zadie Smith] so much. I don't want to be stupid. If I say something stupid, just… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The traveller must, of course, always be cautious of the overly broad generalisation. But I am an American, and a paucity of… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm not thinking much about overall themes or preoccupations or anything like that. Instead I'm just trusting that, if I'm working hard,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm trying to read/edit my story as if I have no existing knowledge of the story, no investment in it, no sense… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If you want to explore a political idea in the highest possible way, you embody it in the personal, because that's something… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
While writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], [idea of inclusion] occurred to me, you either believe in the Constitution or you… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
People who've written about Abraham Lincoln's writing emphasize how logical he was. His writing was a syllogistic tool. He would say, if… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If you at least try to do the things that excite you, it will make you a more expansive and present person… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm starting to withdraw from [technology] as much as I can. I don't do much of the social media stuff. Like, if… — 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 knew if I evoked that stuff too easily or gratuitously, as a way of assuaging my fears of not being edgy… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The other thing that's useful for me is this notion of the absolute versus the relative:if we walk out and it's a… — 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
![“I really wanted to be allowed to the [writer's] table. So it makes me happy to be at the table. It sounds a little shallow, but if I imagine the shadow life, where I didn't get that chance, and all the ways my negative inclinations would have bloomed if I hadn't gotten the attention, but also the…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/82e/george-saunders-317_attention_i-really-wanted-to-be-allowed-to-the-wri_2675640.jpg)
![“I am trying to remember that things have certainly been crazier in human history and they may get crazier here and now, and [here I am trying to be optimistic] it's even a good thing, to be going through all of this, if only to be reminded that history hasn't stopped - human existence is as…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/853/george-saunders-317_being-optimistic_i-am-trying-to-remember-that-things-have_2850464.jpg)
![“I feel nervous because I revere [Zadie Smith] so much. I don't want to be stupid. If I say something stupid, just interrupt me.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2b5/george-saunders-317_feels_i-feel-nervous-because-i-revere-zadie-sm_396169.jpg)
![“While writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], [idea of inclusion] occurred to me, you either believe in the Constitution or you don't. If you do, it's intense in what it wants of us.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/367/george-saunders-317_believe_while-writing-this-book-lincoln-in-the-b_2048122.jpg)
![“I'm starting to withdraw from [technology] as much as I can. I don't do much of the social media stuff. Like, if I'm on Facebook, it changes my relation to the real world in a way that makes me feel sick - almost like I've had too much sugar or something.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b68/george-saunders-317_feels_i-m-starting-to-withdraw-from-technology_1139204.jpg)
![“I knew if I evoked that stuff too easily or gratuitously, as a way of assuaging my fears of not being edgy or whatever, the writing would fall apart. This book [Lincoln in the Bardo] was going to have to have some earnestness in it.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/794/george-saunders-317_book_i-knew-if-i-evoked-that-stuff-too-easily_407342.jpg)
