I don't like that new age posture where you kind of tilt your head. I don't like that posture right now. I want something a little more confident and more sure of the values that we're defending, which are the old ones, love and empathy and patience and tolerance and civility. Not to get into politics or anything.
George SaundersI wasted a lot of years working on my writing and very grandly saying, 'And now... My Novel!,' which would soon be reduced to a short story, then to a paragraph.
George SaundersI think people have come to expect that in artistic representation; that every work of art should be a work of extravagant hope.
George SaundersSuccess makes opportunities and so many of those "opportunities" are actually exemptions - from hardship, from unfriendliness, from struggle.
George SaundersIt's a little like packing for a trip. First you lay out everything that might possibly be useful, with no thought about the size of your suitcase. Then, look at your suitcase. In the case of narrative, there's a certain obligation to keep the pace up and have each section or subsection be doing something.
George Saunders