George Saunders Quotes

A collection of quotes by George Saunders.

George Saunders is an acclaimed American author known for his innovative and genre-defying approach to storytelling. Born on December 2, 1958, in Amarillo, Texas, Saunders grew up in Chicago and later attended the Colorado School of Mines, where he studied geophysical engineering. Despite finding success in the corporate world initially, Saunders felt the pull towards writing and eventually pursued an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University.

Saunders's unique writing style often combines elements of satire, humor, and profound observations on contemporary society. His works, including short stories and novels, have garnered widespread recognition and numerous awards. Some of his notable works include "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" (1996), "Pastoralia" (2000), and "Tenth of December" (2013). The latter, a collection of short stories, received critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.

Saunders's writing often explores themes of human connection, consumerism, and the human condition, while employing a distinctive blend of realism and speculative fiction. Beyond his creative work, he has taught writing at Syracuse University for many years and has been influential as a mentor to aspiring writers. George Saunders's unique storytelling and insightful social commentary have solidified his place as one of the most significant contemporary American authors to date.

We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and

We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.

George Saunders

It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't

It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't happened anymore.

George Saunders

A John Updike is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, if that

A John Updike is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, if that generation is lucky: so comfortable in so many genres, the same lively, generous intelligence suffusing all he did.

George Saunders

If you think of a work of fiction as a kind of scale model o

If you think of a work of fiction as a kind of scale model of the world, then the positive valences - where things turn out better than you thought they would - ought to be in there somewhere, too.

George Saunders

The cool parts - the parts that have won Dubai its reputatio

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 Saunders

My habit would have been to veer towards the dark - to prove

My habit would have been to veer towards the dark - to prove I was something edgy, or maybe to prove that I was cognisant of the dark side. Now, with age and confidence, I can say, yeah, that's true, but I am cognisant of the fact that people can do things well. And can be more loving than you expect.

George Saunders

If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of vo

If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience.

George Saunders

Whatever your supposed politics are - left, right - if you p

Whatever your supposed politics are - left, right - if you put it in a human connection, most people will rise to the occasion and feel the human pain in a way that they might not if it was presented in a more conceptual way.

George Saunders

The universal human laws - need, love for the beloved, fear,

The universal human laws - need, love for the beloved, fear, hunger, periodic exaltation, the kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of hunger/fear/pain - are constant, predictable, reliable, universal, and are merely ornamented with the details of local culture.

George Saunders

I started out in engineering. I was a geophysical engineer.

I started out in engineering. I was a geophysical engineer. Throughout the course of my life I've done a lot of strange jobs, and the effect has been to make me think a little more skeptically about our capitalist society.

George Saunders

I'm finding, as I get older, that I'm not much of a believer

I'm finding, as I get older, that I'm not much of a believer in redemption. I mean, I believe in redemption in real life - redemption does happen, and it's cool when it does - but I find myself getting leery of my desire for it in stories (especially my own).

George Saunders

If death is in the room, it's pretty interesting. But I woul

If death is in the room, it's pretty interesting. But I would also say that I'm interested in getting myself to believe that it's going to happen to me. I'm interested in it, because if you're not, you're nuts. It's really de facto what we're here to find out about.

George Saunders

One also hears a great deal about how this awful joint tenur

One also hears a great deal about how this awful joint tenure of the executive mansion was a good thing in that it conferred 'experience' on the despised and much-deceived wife. Well, the main 'experience' involved the comprehensive fouling-up of the nation's health-care arrangements, so as to make them considerably worse than they had been before and to create an opening for the worst-of-all-worlds option of the so-called HMO, combining as it did the maximum of capitalist gouging with the maximum of socialistic bureaucracy. This abysmal outcome, forgiven for no reason that I can perceive, was the individual responsibility of the woman who now seems to think it entitles her to the presidency.

Christopher Hitchens

We have that illusion that we are 'deciding' what to make a

We have that illusion that we are 'deciding' what to make a character do, in order to 'convey our message' or something like that. But, at least in my experience, you are often more like a river-rafting guide who's been paid a bonus to purposely steer your clients into the roughest possible water.

George Saunders

When I was a kid, I took 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridg

When I was a kid, I took 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' very seriously. It was a world to me in the same way that the Greek myths would have been had I read them. You know, Marcia is Athena and Mr. Brady is Zeus.

George Saunders

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader t

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

George Saunders

The word 'funny' is a bit like the word 'love' - we don't ha

The word 'funny' is a bit like the word 'love' - we don't have enough words to describe the many varieties.

George Saunders

The scariest thought in the world is that someday I'll wake

The scariest thought in the world is that someday I'll wake up and realize I've been sleepwalking through my life: underappreciating the people I love, making the same hurtful mistakes over and over, a slave to neuroses, fear, and the habitual.

George Saunders

I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe t

I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once, kind of humming and sublime.

George Saunders

Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that save

Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth. Is life kind or cruel? Yes, Literature answers. Are people good or bad? You bet, says Literature. But unlike other systems of knowing, Literature declines to eradicate one truth in favor of another.

George Saunders