On one level, I am a total softie, sort of depressed and afraid of losing the people I love or failing them. To disguise that, there's all this harsh, poop-centric, external swagger, full of nastiness. I'm a cloaking device. George Saunders More Quotes by George Saunders More Quotes From George Saunders I've found that my first drafts are not so special. But the more I work on them, the better they get. They are more unique and defensible. George Saunders unique special firsts I used to joke about this but I've recently realized that I really believe it: I spent many years training myself to write very slowly for pretty good money. So the idea of writing really quickly for free offends me. George Saunders writing believe years 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 dislodged, but I suspect it might have something to do with the turnaround time re: blogging and so on - this sense that there is some essential truth about a first draft that one runs the risk of "ruining" by coming back to it. George Saunders writing running years The old and honorable American notion, that a person who works hard should be able to live in freedom and security, with dignity - seems to have taken on a secondary status. George Saunders able hard-work taken In the absolute sense - kind of from the God's-eye view - God might feel like, "I made this thing that has all of that in it, all the horror and all the beauty." George Saunders eye views might The other thing that's useful for me is this notion of the absolute versus the relative:if we walk out and it's a beautiful morning, it's only a beautiful morning because we don't have a broken leg or hemorrhoids or something. George Saunders broken morning beautiful All of this strife on the political front might just be the death throes of another set of [less-honorable] American beliefs, that have, at their core, the notion that equality is something the privileged group "gives" to those not so privileged - a reaching down, as it were. George Saunders political might giving [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. George Saunders hyper long book The book says [Lincoln in the Bardo],"I really need this sci-fi device of a ghost inhabiting another person." You say okay kind of begrudgingly. So the structure seemed informed by need and efficiency. George Saunders kind book needs What was fun for me with this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] was to start out with the principle that went, "We're going to fight every day to make this not a novel; make it too short to be a novel." And then with that principle in place, the book sort of starts to say, "Okay, but I really need this. I really need some historical nuggets." And you're like, "All right, but keep it under control." George Saunders fighting fun book I think this is the other big issue that is not going away: Do we really believe that bit in the Constitution or not? I think we do. George Saunders issues believe thinking Both [Donald] Trump and Bernie [Sanders] got to this idea of the vanishing middle class sooner and with more passion than more mainstream politicians, and benefited from it. The difference, of course, is that Bernie understood this in a more compassionate framework, and talked about it in conjunction with a revitalization of another part of the American project, which is the notion that we are all created equal, and that our laws and culture and action ought to reflect that. George Saunders passion law class It's on us to investigate ourselves for any lingering sense that we are 'giving' equality. We are not. It is already given. And not by us. George Saunders lingering given giving In a certain way, we're always toggling back and forth between the absolute and the relative, if that makes sense. George Saunders back-and-forth certain way I don't mind being criticized intelligently; although I don't love it. George Saunders mind 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]. George Saunders real joy people 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. George Saunders quality real joy We have not been energetic enough - white people haven't - in pursuing racial equity. George Saunders enough white people Toni Morrison seems to have a lot of faith in people - that's what I mean by gentle power. George Saunders gentle mean people I think people have come to expect that in artistic representation; that every work of art should be a work of extravagant hope. George Saunders people art thinking
