When I write I know that I'm going to have to produce 40 percent more than I need. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Chekhov - shall I be blunt? - is the greatest short story writer who ever lived. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I'm always nice when I do drugs. But, you know, I'm nicer on the drug called "writing." — 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 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
I've always wanted to write energetic, atypical sentences, i.e., sentences that were not normal or bland. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Some of our writers are starting to incorporate elements of social media, etc. in the work itself, which is all for the… — 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
While I'm doing [writing], I don't feel it.I don't think that's a failing. I think it's just a feature. Like, a feature… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I wasted a lot of years working on my writing and very grandly saying, 'And now... My Novel!,' which would soon be… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I don't really do much social media. I just don't like it that much. I've trained myself to write very slowly for… — 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
I attended Catholic school. We received a great education from the nuns. ... Also, guilt. Guilt and a feeling of never being… — 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 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
The best thing that ever happened to me is that nothing happened in writing. I ended up working for engineering companies, and… — 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
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
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
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
I'm not sure I would call it agony but there is a kind of cyclic frustration. You get one story right and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
On a more technical level, a story takes a lot of words. And to generate words and phrases and images and so… — 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
Now I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I really wanted to be allowed to the [writer's] table. So it makes me happy to be at the table. It sounds… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I don't know how you feel, but I feel like writing, clarity of thought, and truth have been validated because we see… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“How, then, to proceed? My method is: I imagine a meter mounted in my forehead, with “P” on this side (“Positive”) and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“In the beginning, there’s a blank mind. Then that mind gets an idea in it, and the trouble begins, because the mind… — 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
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
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
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
Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to. — 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
The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Even if something within me is ugly, writing is a pretty good place to play with that thing and to begin to… — 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
![“While I'm doing [writing], I don't feel it.I don't think that's a failing. I think it's just a feature. Like, a feature of oneself.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/846/george-saunders-317_failing_while-i-m-doing-writing-i-don-t-feel-it_302755.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)
![“I really wanted to be allowed to the [writer's] table. So it makes me happy to be at the table. It sounds a little shallow, but if I imagine the shadow life, where I didn't get that chance, and all the ways my negative inclinations would have bloomed if I hadn't gotten the attention, but also the…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/82e/george-saunders-317_attention_i-really-wanted-to-be-allowed-to-the-wri_2675640.jpg)
