All along, my mantra was: Don't write unless it contributes to the emotion, and do anything you do in service of the emotion only.
George SaundersA work of art is something produced by a person, but is not that person โ it is of her, but is not her. Itโs a reach, really โ the artist is trying to inhabit, temporarily, a more compact, distilled, efficient, wittier, more true-seeing, precise version of herself โ one that she canโt replicate in so-called โrealโ life, no matter how hard she tries. Thatโs why she writes: to try and briefly be more than she truly is.
George SaundersA writer writes what interests him and what he can manage, and what he can make live, as Flannery O'Connor said. So my reaction to someone saying "You must!" or "You should!" or even "Hey, why don't you?" is basically to sort of shrug and politely walk off and do whatever I want to do. It's nobody else's business, really, and even if I happened to agree with one of those "musts" or "shoulds" what would I do about it, if my heart wasn't in it?
George SaundersIf I find myself being too earnest and sentimental and hyperbolic and simplistic, which is definitely a tendency I have, then I bring in this perverse henchman.
George Saunders