I'm a big fan of the Russians: Isaac Babel is just an exquisite line-to-line stylist.
George SaundersIt was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new desire rising from within it.
George SaundersSome of our writers are starting to incorporate elements of social media, etc. in the work itself, which is all for the good, I think - finding new ways of being poetic.
George SaundersI think about how I conceptualize the audience. The trick is that they've got to be smarter and more worldly than me. So as I'm revising, I'm keeping that in mind. I cannot condescend, even a little bit. Every single choice that I make is motivated by that.
George SaundersWe try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.
George SaundersAs 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