George Saunders
George Saunders
George Saundersis an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ. He also contributed a weekly column, American Psyche, to the weekend magazine of The Guardian until October 2008...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 December 1958
CityAmarillo, TX
CountryUnited States of America
age trying failing
We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.
real community might
There might be a different model for a literary community that's quicker, more real-time, and involves more spontaneity.
way stories definitions
That seems to be the definition of 'novel' for me: a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.
thinking fiction might
Sometimes I think fiction exists to model the way God might think of us, if God had the time and inclination to do so.
trying chance kind
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.
voice ifs havens
If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience.
story-writers stories chekhov
Chekhov - shall I be blunt? - is the greatest short story writer who ever lived.
firsts stories accepted
Back in 1992, I had my first story accepted by 'The New Yorker.'
hey nostalgia remember
Nostalgia is, 'Hey, remember the other mall that used to be there?'
feelings perception trying
I've also found that trying to be active with social media changes my moment-to-moment perceptions. Instead of feeling, "What's the deepest version of what's happening here?" I start to feel, "How can I use [or "claim"] this?".
jobs caring stories
To me, the writer's main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared - she's right there, seeing things happen and caring about them. And if you dedicate yourself to this job, the meanings more or less take care of themselves. That's the theory, anyway.
enough words-love bits
The word 'funny' is a bit like the word 'love' - we don't have enough words to describe the many varieties.
honesty irony honest
Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.
spiritual country long
One of the sad things about this political season is that it allows [requires] us to get behind our big "Liberal" or "Conservative" banner and forget, for a time, that the big problems in our country have been around a long time and have been batted back and forth, caused and exacerbated, by both sides, and are more spiritual or ethical than [merely] political.