The cool parts - the parts that have won Dubai its reputation as 'the Vegas of the Middle East' or 'the Venice of the Middle East' or 'the Disney World of the Middle East, if Disney World were the size of San Francisco and out in a desert' - have been built in the last ten years.
George SaundersIt was like either: (A) I was a terrible guy who was knowingly doing this rotten thing over and over, or (B) it wasnโt so rotten, really, just normal, and the way to confirm it was normal was to keep doing it, over and over.
George SaundersWe've got a real problem with social media that we didn't know we were going to have. It's almost like the demons have gotten out of the box.
George SaundersI always cheerfully say, "Well, you know, the species is adapting, and whatever it needs to do, it'll do," but I do think it's maybe a little bit alarming. Everybody knows that one thing we really have to do is to be more wherever we are, more present, that's just kind of a commonplace. And the whole mobile phone thing is completely 100% the opposite - to never be where you are because you can always be somewhere else; and yet it's so fun and addictive.
George Saunders