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
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
I would say one thing writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] did for me was underscore the fact that this issue… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
While writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], [idea of inclusion] occurred to me, you either believe in the Constitution or you… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
When you write an essay, of course you're going to get pushback, but you're going to be allowed to make your case… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
To me, the writer's main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
People who've written about Abraham Lincoln's writing emphasize how logical he was. His writing was a syllogistic tool. He would say, if… — 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
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
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
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
“Even for those thousands of young people who don’t get something out there [in a university writing program], the process is still… — 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
You didn't plan to write a story; it just happened. Well, it could be argued that the next thing you should do… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
There was one sequence of days [making Lincoln in the Bardo] when I had halfway decided to use the historical nuggets, but… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
The only thing I might have noticed [and this is pretty anecdotal] is that there is some tendency to need to be… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I knew if I evoked that stuff too easily or gratuitously, as a way of assuaging my fears of not being edgy… — 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
There's a really nice moment in the life of a piece of writing where the writer starts to get a feeling of… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I guess: People who are comfortable enough with reality to allow other sorts of realities and other mindsets to just be, and… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“The writer,' said Donald Barthelme, 'is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.' In this mode of… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
That's what a story must feel like to me. It's not, "I want to write about a gravedigger." But you're walking along… — 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
“But hereby resolve to write in this book at least twenty minutes a night. (If discouraged, just think of how much will… — 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 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
I'm repledging myself to human-scale values. As a fiction writer, the best data comes through the senses and is then processed through… — 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 came away believing and really deeply troubled by is the extent to which you can have two well-intentioned people talking in… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
And I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations. It could… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I've been reading about and writing about the Civil War period and it is so striking that slavery was never made right… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I used to joke about this but I've recently realized that I really believe it: I spent many years training myself to… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
If a writer understands his work as something that originates with him but then, with any luck, gets away from him, then… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I sometimes imagine a great writer as a sort of God-surrogate: the writer is doing his or her human-best to emulate what… — 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
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
“My sense is that if you go far enough in any stylistic direction, you can make a beautiful and complex representation of… — 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
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 would say one thing writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] did for me was underscore the fact that this issue [all men are created equal] has never been properly addressed and it hasn't gone away.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0c5/george-saunders-317_book_i-would-say-one-thing-writing-this-book_1522919.jpg)
![“While writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], [idea of inclusion] occurred to me, you either believe in the Constitution or you don't. If you do, it's intense in what it wants of us.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/367/george-saunders-317_believe_while-writing-this-book-lincoln-in-the-b_2048122.jpg)
![“Even for those thousands of young people who don’t get something out there [in a university writing program], the process is still a noble one — the process of trying to say something, of working through craft issues and the worldview issues and the ego issues — all of this is character-building…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8ca/george-saunders-317_2013_even-for-those-thousands-of-young-people_928652.jpg)
![“There was one sequence of days [making Lincoln in the Bardo] when I had halfway decided to use the historical nuggets, but I wasn't quite sure it would work. I'd be in my room for six or seven hours, cutting up bits of paper with quotes and arranging them on the floor, with this little voice in my…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e44/george-saunders-317_arranging_there-was-one-sequence-of-days-making-li_3016056.jpg)
![“The only thing I might have noticed [and this is pretty anecdotal] is that there is some tendency to need to be taught that 'writing is rewriting' - maybe more of a sense than was pervasive 10 years ago that the first or second pass of a story is sufficient. That is an idea that is easily…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/249/george-saunders-317_blogging_the-only-thing-i-might-have-noticed-and_2019915.jpg)
![“I knew if I evoked that stuff too easily or gratuitously, as a way of assuaging my fears of not being edgy or whatever, the writing would fall apart. This book [Lincoln in the Bardo] was going to have to have some earnestness in it.” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/794/george-saunders-317_book_i-knew-if-i-evoked-that-stuff-too-easily_407342.jpg)
![“I guess: People who are comfortable enough with reality to allow other sorts of realities and other mindsets to just be, and then to regard these with real interest and joy [and the joy appears in the prose quality itself].” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f7b/george-saunders-317_comfortable_i-guess-people-who-are-comfortable-enoug_2220701.jpg)
![“I've been reading about and writing about the Civil War period and it is so striking that slavery was never made right - [Abraham] Lincoln was killed, Reconstruction came along, and all of that inequity was frozen in place and carried forward rather smugly. So I think the burden is now upon us…” quote by George Saunders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/607/george-saunders-317_abraham_i-ve-been-reading-about-and-writing-abou_3049163.jpg)
