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 With fiction, and also with nonfiction that you can take your time doing, you have a much better chance of reaching across the divide and connecting with somebody who is opposed to you on some things. They're opposed to you on one axis, which is politics, but if you go over the axis called puppies, you might find some common ground. George Saunders axes doing-you fiction I think something that I can't name about our media has made us move away from that kind of specificity and that kind of curiosity. George Saunders names moving thinking 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. George Saunders games writing thinking I know that my only chance at any kind of depth or profundity is to linger within the story, trying to make it distinguish itself. George Saunders depth stories trying The bottom line for me is that life is short and art is long. George Saunders life-is-short long art I would kind of, you know, go stand next to some unlucky guy and say eventually, Hi, I'm George. You know, I'm with The New Yorker. I'm a liberal. I'm somewhat left of Gandhi. Do you want to talk? And, you know, they always did. George Saunders next guy want I often wonder if there are certain areas of real life that are roped off, with a sign saying, "Art, don't come in here." But that's maybe a deeper question. George Saunders real wonder art As for "toothy kindness" - I think all traditions are full of this sort of tough kindness. If someone is on a wrong or dull path, and someone else startles them into awareness of that, then that's a blessing. And the method by which the startle is obtained might be anger, or satire, or an intentionally applied indifference. But that is, of course, a fine line. George Saunders blessing kindness thinking If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk into a room and you're engaging with imaginary strangers because you don't actually know who they are. For me, it was really empowering to say: this is a branch of entertainment and communication and engagement, as opposed to jumping over some perceived literary high bar. That was the buzzkill. George Saunders communication jumping writing I'm a control freak. I'm defensive. And I'm an egomaniac. That's true about me. George Saunders egomaniacs control-freak freak Whole idea is really intriguing to me. If you took snapshots of ourselves throughout the day, the way that our mind is twisting and turning, then at the moment of death, the mind would be twisting and turning in the same way. But the Buddhists say it's super-sized because there's no bodily damper on it. George Saunders buddhist mind ideas Whatever you love, that will be an influence. It just will. So in effect the young writer's job is: go out and find some stuff to love. George Saunders young-writers stuff jobs Fiction is open to whoever comes in the door, as long as you come in energetically. George Saunders doors long fiction I read Rand and thought, "I want to be one of the earth movers, the scientific people who power the world. I don't want to be one of these lisping liberal artsy leeches." So I was working against my actual abilities. George Saunders leeches people world I've always wanted to write energetic, atypical sentences, i.e., sentences that were not normal or bland. George Saunders energetic normal writing The writer has to make pleasure for the reader - which, I think, is done by taking one's character's seriously and taking one's readers seriously -don't condescend or try to be tricky. Be a friend to your reader - I'd say that's a pretty good first step. George Saunders trying character thinking I'm comfortable with anything after the fact. George Saunders comfortable facts In a sense my whole life as a writer is trying to find structural ways, or formal ways, to permit that outflowing so it doesn't just look like crazy output. In other words, if it turns out that you can do a given voice, that's just kind of inclination. But then if you can find a way to put that voice in a story so that the voice serves a purpose, then I would say that's being a writer. George Saunders voice crazy trying Every writer knows that when you're imitating somebody - you know, you're sounding like Faulkner - you're doing pretty good, but your life in Hoboken isn't Faulkneresque. George Saunders hoboken imitating knows I feel that there is nothing that can happen to a person that is banal. Everything that happens to us is interesting. George Saunders persons feels interesting
