I think each writer has to seek her most energetic prose style. She has to find a way to write so that… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I see this quality [real interest and joy] in the work of [Pavel] Chekhov, of course, and [Alexei] Tolstoy and really just… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I don't feel like I have the intelligence to really inhabit a consistently high level of prose. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The millions or billions of micro decisions that you're going to make, that's what will determine who you are as a writer,… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
All along, my mantra was: Don't write unless it contributes to the emotion, and do anything you do in service of the… — 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 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
[In the moment of reading writer and reader] are both briefly their best selves, or at least better selves. A flawed human… — 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
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
I don't use the word lightly, in fact, I don't use it at all, but Ben Marcus is a genius, one of… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
As a young kid I assumed that everybody was sort of on the same wavelength as I was and then I found… — 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 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
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
I love story-writing because I can (more or less, on occasion) actually DO it. That's really the truth. I like the idea… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
In a sense my whole life as a writer is trying to find structural ways, or formal ways, to permit that outflowing… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If I'm writing a story and you're reading it, or vice versa, you took time out of your day to pick up… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
My mind goes really quickly and I tend to talk really fast, as you've probably heard, I sometimes lose track of my… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
A writer writes what interests him and what he can manage, and what he can make live, as Flannery O'Connor said. So… — 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
If you really think back to the great writers, there's a lot of happiness in Tolstoy; there's a lot of love, there's… — 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
In the moment of reading, the writer comes up to the surface and the reader comes up to the surface and they… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I always describe writing a story as throwing bowling pins in the air and then catching them. — George Saunders Copy Share Image
As the writer of this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], what I loved was the feeling of having so many surprises come… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The greatest thing about writing a book is that at first it's all inchoate, but the more you work on it, the… — 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
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
There are things that are shadow sides of the creative energy that are negative and all that kind of stuff. The only… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
For me, the fiction writer's job is to take the small, stupid process of learning to use an iPhone - and suddenly… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I think it's basically the same game, although with a public figure like [Donald] Trump I think you are bound to consider… — 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
[Writing] is almost like those boats that sit really low in the water; they look kind of ugly. And then you get… — 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
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
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'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
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 see this quality [real interest and joy] in the work of [Pavel] Chekhov, of course, and [Alexei] Tolstoy and really just about any great writer.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/df2/george-saunders-317_chekhov_i-see-this-quality-real-interest-and-joy_1147729.jpg)
![“[In the moment of reading writer and reader] are both briefly their best selves, or at least better selves. A flawed human being writes something and 60 years later a reader picks up the book and something in them rises to meet it.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/538/george-saunders-317_best-self_in-the-moment-of-reading-writer-and-read_1635082.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)
![“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)
![“As the writer of this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], what I loved was the feeling of having so many surprises come at the end that I hadn't really planned or planted.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/869/george-saunders-317_book_as-the-writer-of-this-book-lincoln-in-th_507145.jpg)
![“I think it's basically the same game, although with a public figure like [Donald] Trump I think you are bound to consider the public persona rather than the private one. At least that was the case with that piece of writing.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e52/george-saunders-317_bounds_i-think-it-s-basically-the-same-game-alt_393973.jpg)
![“[Writing] is almost like those boats that sit really low in the water; they look kind of ugly. And then you get one of them up to 80 miles an hour and the hull comes up, and it's a beautiful thing. I'm okay with that for myself.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ed7/george-saunders-317_beautiful_writing-is-almost-like-those-boats-that_2266941.jpg)
