I think fiction isn't so good at being for or against things in general - the rhetorical argument a short story can… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
That seems to be the definition of 'novel' for me: a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
So for me the approach has become to go into a story not really sure of what I want to say, try… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Early on, a story's meaning and rationale seem pretty obvious, but then, as I write it, I realize that I know the… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Why were we put here, so inclined to love, when end of our story = death? That harsh. That cruel. Do not like. — 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
I've had that situation where I start writing somebody really miserable, and in order to make the story come alive, I have… — 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
Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow Darwinian. These are: (1) we're central to… — 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
More and more these days what I find myself doing in my stories is making a representation of goodness and a representation… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Intelligent, heartfelt stories that tell a whole new set of truths about growing up American. Julie Orringer writes with virtuosity and depth… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I love the feeling of being on the hunt - the feeling that the story is refusing to be solved in some… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I might take from the current political chaos a desire to somehow reflect its essential qualities in a story - the blatant… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
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 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 know that my only chance at any kind of depth or profundity is to linger within the story, trying to make… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
In my work, and in my psyche, there's some very sentimental, traditional, conventional side that's always in argument with a more radical,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
My stories, I can understand them as a little toy that you wind up and you put it on the floor and… — 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
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
