I'm always aware of writing around things I can't do, and I've come to think that that's actually what 'style' is -… — 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
[Lincoln in the Bardo] is not a long book. And that meant I could obsess over it and live in it both… — 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
I think the path for a young writer might be one that says, "I have to accept myself, this is what I… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Whatever you love, that will be an influence. It just will. So in effect the young writer's job is: go out and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
From the beginning [of the Lincoln in the Bardo], I actually had it in mind not to write a novel. I'd kind… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Honestly, the choice is: I can be a cheerful person, more awake to correction, more of a force for good ... when… — 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 think in our time, you know, so much of the information we get is pre-polarized. Fiction has a way of reminding… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
To me, the process of writing is just reading what I've written and - like running your hand over one of those… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk… — 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
My theory for nonfiction is that nobody can be free of some kind of conceptions about whatever story they're writing. But if… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I sometimes think that I can't do the bigger thing that [Zadie Smith] do so beautifully, as in Swing Time, with so… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
From the perspective of someone with two grown and wonderful kids, that your instincts as parents are correct: a minute spent reading… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“There’s a vast underground network for goodness at work in this world—a web of people who’ve put reading at the center of… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think the trick of being a writer is to basically put your cards out there all the time and be willing… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Every writer knows that when you're imitating somebody - you know, you're sounding like Faulkner - you're doing pretty good, but your… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I believe that, when [meeting of writer and reader] happens and the reader goes out into the world the next day, there's… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm not a big fan of my books going on cross-country road trips. They get arrogant and, next thing, start aspiring to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When I'm not writing, I tend to get depressed and a little bit surly. And then when I'm writing, suddenly I feel… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“I was thinking the other day about the idea that you have a reader and a writer, and they’re different and they’re… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The chances of a person breaking through their own habits and sloth and limited mind to actually write something that gets out… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I've found that my first drafts are not so special. But the more I work on them, the better they get. They… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think that feels like it to me. I mean whenever you talk about writing I think you have to remember that… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
As far as which writers embody this form of gentle power - Tobias Wolff, for sure. His persona and his writing both… — 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
I love the idea that more people would read short fiction. I think it's such a humanizing form. It softens the boundaries… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Writing and reading and speaking with specificity and skill has never seen more important to me than it does at this moment.… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we're someone else, disrupting the delusion that we're… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Whenever you talk about writing I think you have to remember that it all has a big question mark over it -… — 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
“Fiction is an urgent business. It is the Dying Us telling stories to the Dying Us, trying to crack the nonsense in… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
As a fiction writer, one of things you learn is God lives in specificity. You know, human kindness is increased as we… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Maybe you could even think 100,000 people are inside each human being. And you drop a novel on that person, and a… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think that's one of the maybe under-discussed aspects of process - the difference between a good writing day and a bad… — 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
As Flannery O'Connor says, a person can choose what she writes but she can't choose what she makes live. Some people are… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
There were several points where I would kind of turn to the book and say, "Get thee behind me." I don't think… — 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
![“[Lincoln in the Bardo] is not a long book. And that meant I could obsess over it and live in it both backwards and forwards and hyper-control everything.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/afc/george-saunders-317_backwards_lincoln-in-the-bardo-is-not-a-long-book_2176474.jpg)
![“From the beginning [of the Lincoln in the Bardo], I actually had it in mind not to write a novel. I'd kind of gotten past that point where I felt bad for never having written a novel, even to where I felt really good about it, like I was a real purist.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/843/george-saunders-317_books_from-the-beginning-of-the-lincoln-in-the_3136511.jpg)
![“I sometimes think that I can't do the bigger thing that [Zadie Smith] do so beautifully, as in Swing Time, with so much world in it and so much rapturous paint thrown around. I don't think it would be possible to write a book on that scale with as much OCD as I have.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/793/george-saunders-317_bigger_i-sometimes-think-that-i-can-t-do-the-bi_3125094.jpg)
![“I believe that, when [meeting of writer and reader] happens and the reader goes out into the world the next day, there's some alteration that might possibly inflect the person positively.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c78/george-saunders-317_alterations_i-believe-that-when-meeting-of-writer-an_2524233.jpg)
