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George Saunders

George Saunders Quotes

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Famous George Saunders Quotes

“...There is no end to the making and selling of things there is no end to the making and selling of things there is no end... Man, it occurs to me, is a joyful, buying-and-selling piece of work. I have been wrong, dead wrong, when I've decried consumerism. Consumerism is what we are. It is, in a sense, a holy impulse. A human being is someone who joyfully goes in pursuit of things, brings them home, then immediately starts planning how to get more.”

MenHumansHas BeensEndsHomeHuman BeingsPiecesHolyPursuitPlanningSellingImpulseBuyingJoyfulConsumerismBuying And Selling
Author:George Saunders
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“What good the prophet in the wilderness may do is incremental and personal. It's good for us to hear someone speak the irrational truth. It's good for us when, in spite of all of the sober, pragmatic, and even correct arguments that war is sometimes necessary someone says: war is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the weakest being.”

MayWarSometimesGuySpeakWorstArgumentMurderScalesProphetSpiteWildernessIrrationalSoberPragmaticLarge ScaleStupidestSlaughterhouse Five
Book:The Brain-Dead Megaphone
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“Down in the city are the nice houses and the so-so houses and the lovers making out in dark yards and the babies crying for their moms, and I wonder if, other than Jesus, has this ever happened before. Maybe it happens all the time. Maybe there's angry dead all over, hiding in rooms, covered with blankets, bossing around their scared, embarrassed relatives. Because how would we know?”

IfsKnowsHappensHouseJesusDarkRoomsCitiesWonderNiceHappenedCryBabyMomLoversAngryScaredCoveredHidingEmbarrassedYardsBlanketNice House
Author:George Saunders
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“Now I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind and exits in another. The writer gets no points just because what's inside the box bears some linear resemblance to "real life" -- he can put whatever he wants in there. What's important is that something undeniable and nontrivial happens to the reader between entry and exit.”

WantMindKindArtImportantRealStatesHappensBlackBearsReaderBoxesReal LifeState Of MindNo PointExitEntryWhat's ImportantLinearResemblanceBlack Boxes
Book:The Brain-Dead Megaphone
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“I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.”

PeopleThinkingWayTryingYearsLittlesSelfEnoughFeelingsHappensBeautifulBrainWalkingProofSmarterInadequateBeautiful People
Author:George Saunders
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“Vonnegut's war was necessary. And yet it was massacre and screaming and confusion and blood and death. It was the mammoth projection outward of the confused inner life of men. In war, the sad tidy constructs we make to help us believe life is orderly and controllable are roughly thrown aside like the delusions they are. In war, love is outed as an insane, insupportable emotion, a kind of luxury emotion, because everywhere you look, someone beloved to someone is being slaughtered, by someone whose own beloved has been slaughtered, or will be, or could be.”

MenBelieveLooksKindHas BeensWarHelpingLife IsLove IsEmotionBloodConfusionInsaneLuxuryBelovedConfusedThrownDelusionConstructsProjectionInner LifeOrderlyTidyMassacresWar Love
Author:George Saunders
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“In art, and maybe just in general, the idea is to be able to be really comfortable with contradictory ideas. In other words, wisdom might be, seem to be, two contradictory ideas both expressed at their highest level and just let to sit in the same cage sort of, vibrating. So, I think as a writer, I'm really never sure of what I really believe.”

ThinkingBelieveArtTwoIdeasSeemsMightAbleLevelsWords Of WisdomComfortableHighestContradictionCagesContradictory
Author:George Saunders
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“I have a sense that God is unfair and preferentially punishes his weak, his dumb, his fat, his lazy. I believe he takes more pleasure in his perfect creatures, and cheers them on like a brainless dad as they run roughshod over the rest of us. He gives us a need for love, and no way to get any. He gives us a desire to be liked, and personal attributes that make us utterly unlikable. Having placed his flawed and needy children in a world of exacting specifications, he deducts the difference between what we have and what we need from our hearts and our self-esteem and our mental health.”

WorldWayNeedsGivingBelieveHeartChildrenSelfRunningDesireI BelieveDifferencesPerfectPleasureSelf EsteemDadCreaturesWeakMental HealthFatsEsteemDumbLazyCheerAttributesUnfairFlawedNeedySpecificationsBrainless
Author:George Saunders
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“What America is, to me, is a guy doesn't want to buy, you let him not buy, you respect his not buying. A guy has a crazy notion different from your crazy notion, you pat him on the back and say, Hey pal, nice crazy notion, let's go have a beer. America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please, not just one droning glamorous reasonable voice.”

WantShouldDifferentAmericaGuyVoiceNiceCrazyPleaseNotionBunchHeyBeerJust OneReasonableBuyingNutsGlamorousShoutingPalsYour Crazy
Book:The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: (Includes the 'In Persuasion Nation' collection)
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“Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow Darwinian. These are: (1) we're central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the main and most interesting story, the only story, really); (2) we're separate from the universe (there's US and then, out there, all that other junk - dogs and swing-sets, and the State of Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know, other people), and (3) we're permanent (death is real, o.k., sure - for you, but not for me).”

PeopleKnowsRealStatesStoriesUniverseBornInterestingAdviceDogLowsBuiltSeriesCloudsConfusionPermanentSwingsMost InterestingJunkNebraskaGradInteresting StoriesPersonal StoriesSwing Sets
Author:George Saunders
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“Now, we don't really believe these things - intellectually we know better - but we believe them viscerally, and live by them, and they cause us to prioritize our own needs over the needs of others, even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish, more aware of what's actually happening in the present moment, more open, and more loving.”

KnowsWantNeedsBelieveHeartMomentsCausesAdviceHappeningsSelfishLive ByPresent MomentPrioritizeGradNeeds Of Others
Author:George Saunders
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“And so, a prediction, and my heartfelt wish for you: as you get older, your self will diminish and you will grow in love. YOU will gradually be replaced by LOVE. If you have kids, that will be a huge moment in your process of self-diminishment. You really won't care what happens to YOU, as long as they benefit. That's one reason your parents are so proud and happy today. One of their fondest dreams has come true: you have accomplished something difficult and tangible that has enlarged you as a person and will make your life better, from here on in, forever.”

IfsPersonsLongSelfReasonMomentsDreamHappensCareKidsTodayWishGrowsProcessParentDifficultForeverAdviceLove YouHugeProudBenefitsAccomplishedReplacedPredictionsDiminishTangibleHeartfeltTrue YouSelf WillGrad
Book:Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness
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“Still, accomplishment is unreliable. "Succeeding," whatever that might mean to you, is hard, and the need to do so constantly renews itself (success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it), and there's the very real danger that "succeeding" will take up your whole life, while the big questions go untended.”

NeedsMeanStillsRealHardWholeBigsMightGrowingAdviceDangerSucceedMountainWhole LifeAccomplishmentUnreliableBig QuestionsGrad
Book:Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness
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