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George Saunders

George Saunders Quotes

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Famous George Saunders Quotes

“I love story-writing because I can (more or less, on occasion) actually DO it. That's really the truth. I like the idea that a story is sort of a site for making cool language effects - a site for celebrating language, and, therefore, the world. And the brevity is part of the challenge. I like stories because I get them - I know how to make beauty, or something like beauty, in that mode.”

KnowsWorldWritingI CanIdeasStoriesLanguageChallengesKnow HowEffectsLove StoryCelebrateOccasionsSiteBecause I CanBrevityStory Writing
Author:George Saunders
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“It's not fiction's job to be photographically representative of reality. If I want to make a fictional world where there's no kindness, this doesn't mean I believe there's no kindness in the real world. In fact, what it may mean is that I very much value kindness. Like if you make a painting in which only greens are allowed, it wouldn't mean you don't believe in blue.”

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Author:George Saunders
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“I think that tri [to Ram Bahadur Bomjon] was the first time I'd even seen something that made me think, or really feel: "Ah, I don't know what's really going on in the world - I think I do, and it feels like I do, but whatever is really going on is, de facto, beyond the scope of my comprehension - the best we can do is look for hints." I'd known that intellectually before but that was the first time I really believed it viscerally.”

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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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“Night was falling. Birds were singing. Birds were, it occurred to me to say, enacting a frantic celebration of day's end. They were manifesting as the earth's bright-colored nerve endings, the sun's descent urging them into activity, filling them individually with life nectar, the life nectar then being passed into the world, out of each beak, in the form of that bird's distinctive song, which was, in turn, an accident of beak shape, throat shape, breast configuration, brain chemistry: some birds blessed in voice, others cursed; some squeaking, others rapturous.”

WorldEndsEarthFormNightSongTurnsFallVoiceBrainSunActivityShapesSingingBirdBlessedAccidentsBreastsNervesChemistryManifestThroatCelebrationFillingCursedDescentDistinctiveFranticNectarConfigurationBeaksSinging Birds
Book:Tenth of December: Stories
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