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
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 came to writing kind of late. I was an engineer, and the one thing I've learned is that you have to… — 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
I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in 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
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
It really was something, to see Ram Bahadur Bomjon, apparently living without food or water. Before I went on that trip I'd… — 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
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
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
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
This whole literary game of trying to put yourself in the shoes of your opponent is good for everybody. It leaves you… — 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'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
With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are. — 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
One lesson I learned the hard way, early in my career, was that if I tried to write to be smart or… — 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 try to keep my artistic opinions not so much "to myself" but "on myself." — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Every writer has to find the thing to keep her eye on about which she has strong opinions. That's of course deeply… — 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
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
It seems to me a worthy goal: try to create a representation of consciousness that's durable and truthful, i.e., that accounts, somewhat,… — 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
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
