I always cheerfully say, "Well, you know, the species is adapting, and whatever it needs to do, it'll do," but I do… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The book says [Lincoln in the Bardo],"I really need this sci-fi device of a ghost inhabiting another person." You say okay kind… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I have a sense that God is unfair and preferentially punishes his weak, his dumb, his fat, his lazy. I believe he… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When I write I know that I'm going to have to produce 40 percent more than I need. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Still, accomplishment is unreliable. "Succeeding," whatever that might mean to you, is hard, and the need to do so constantly renews itself… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
A country doesn't need a businessman to run it: it needs a heartful, worldly, compassionate leader. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
What was fun for me with this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] was to start out with the principle that went, "We're… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The only thing I might have noticed [and this is pretty anecdotal] is that there is some tendency to need to be… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I guess what I'm trying to say is that whatever weirdness was going to be in there, I felt, had to be… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I haven't written a novel or something that long, because I really am improvising all along and the story is growing new… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The universal human laws - need, love for the beloved, fear, hunger, periodic exaltation, the kindness that rises up naturally in the… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Now, we don't really believe these things - intellectually we know better - but we believe them viscerally, and live by them,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
As much as we - in a revisionist way - tell ourselves that we've always been a righteous country with a couple… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If a writer understands his work as something that originates with him but then, with any luck, gets away from him, then… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think we need leadership that can gently and with affection remind us of what we Americans mostly agree upon: civility, kindness,… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
![“The book says [Lincoln in the Bardo],"I really need this sci-fi device of a ghost inhabiting another person." You say okay kind of begrudgingly. So the structure seemed informed by need and efficiency.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/336/george-saunders-317_book_the-book-says-lincoln-in-the-bardo-i-rea_759066.jpg)
![“What was fun for me with this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] was to start out with the principle that went, "We're going to fight every day to make this not a novel; make it too short to be a novel." And then with that principle in place, the book sort of starts to say, "Okay, but I really need this…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/920/george-saunders-317_book_what-was-fun-for-me-with-this-book-linco_1985477.jpg)
![“The only thing I might have noticed [and this is pretty anecdotal] is that there is some tendency to need to be taught that 'writing is rewriting' - maybe more of a sense than was pervasive 10 years ago that the first or second pass of a story is sufficient. That is an idea that is easily…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/249/george-saunders-317_blogging_the-only-thing-i-might-have-noticed-and_2019915.jpg)
