I have a lot of theories about the beneficial effects of fiction, but I'm always trying to get away from them a… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I've seen time and time again the way that the process of trying to say something dignifies and improves a person. — 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
It's one thing to be a perfectionist when you're alone, but when you're trying to make it work in an ensemble that's… — 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
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
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
Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I've also found that trying to be active with social media changes my moment-to-moment perceptions. Instead of feeling, "What's the deepest version… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
My go-to default is to try to be nice, which I feel does less harm in the long run than trying to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
My idea about collections is that you write as hard as you can for some period and what you're really doing during… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The writer, in order to proceed, is theoretically trying to predict where his complex skein of language and image has left his… — 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
The writer has to make pleasure for the reader - which, I think, is done by taking one's character's seriously and taking… — 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
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
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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
So much of what I am doing in my fiction is just trying to get into interesting places in terms of language… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
With non-fiction writing I feel like I'm confined and driven by what actually happened. That makes the "plot". So it's a process… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I don't tend to work directly from life, except in trying to mimic or match the outlines of its insanity. In other… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
There's also a way that you have of being precise but also allusive, that works well for me - it's something about… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are. — 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
Writing a story I am just trying to find some little interesting thing to start out with: something small, even trivial. Preferably… — 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
In my personal and spiritual life, I reject that. I don't believe in that. I'm always trying to get my mind into… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Just through the process of trying to make the living and the dead feel real, all these little benefits came out. And… — 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 one thing fiction and non-fiction writing have in common for me is that sense of trying to get the sentences to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When somebody you've known for 20 years, and with whom you have a full context, winks at you or whatever, it can… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm not thinking in any big thematic or conceptual terms - especially in this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] when I was… — 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,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I know this will sound naïve, but I often wonder what America would be like if our national ethos was simply to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
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 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
If you start with the idea that you are going to be writing about a night in a graveyard, and that there… — 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
![“I've also found that trying to be active with social media changes my moment-to-moment perceptions. Instead of feeling, "What's the deepest version of what's happening here?" I start to feel, "How can I use [or "claim"] this?".” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e2f/george-saunders-317_active_i-ve-also-found-that-trying-to-be-active_811722.jpg)
![“I'm not thinking in any big thematic or conceptual terms - especially in this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] when I was trying to make the voices more active, more energetic.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2be/george-saunders-317_active_i-m-not-thinking-in-any-big-thematic-or_1219393.jpg)
