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All traditions are also full of meanness for the sake of meanness.

George Saunders

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George Saunders
Age: 65
Born: 1958
Born: December 2
Essayist
Fantasy Author
Geological Engineer
Geophysicist
Journalist
Novelist
Professor
Prosaist
Short Story Writer
Teacher
Amarillo
Texas
Also
Meanness
Traditions
Sake
Tradition
Full

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I am trying to remember that things have certainly been crazier in human history and they may get crazier here and now, and [here I am trying to be optimistic] it's even a good thing, to be going through all of this, if only to be reminded that history hasn't stopped - human existence is as fundamentally unmanageable now as it ever was.
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Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to.
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I think when you see [Donald] Trump in person, my reaction is you kind of enjoy it. It's kind of an enjoyable night out.
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I see this quality [real interest and joy] in the work of [Pavel] Chekhov, of course, and [Alexei] Tolstoy and really just about any great writer.
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What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
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I feel that there is nothing that can happen to a person that is banal. Everything that happens to us is interesting.
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I see that being looked at askance as a form of elitism now, which is really scary.
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I'm not a natural criticizer - I prefer to like and praise and so on.
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I'm turning 58, and you get that kind of weird, old-guy feeling of you don't have an infinite number of years left and if there's anything you want to say or represent, it's time to try it.
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My idea about collections is that you write as hard as you can for some period and what you're really doing during that time is hyper-focusing on the individual pieces - trying to make each one sit up and really do some surprising work.
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So for me the approach has become to go into a story not really sure of what I want to say, try to find some little seed crystal of interest, a sentence or an image or an idea, and as much as possible divest myself of any deep ideas about it. And then by this process of revision, mysteriously it starts to accrete meanings as you go.
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My mind has an obsessive, neurotic quality, but I also have a very hard work ethic. I know that a lot of people think, oh, you have a wild imagination. I don't, really. If ten people are sitting around and someone says, Hey complete this sentence in a funny way, I'm never ahead of the pack.
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I've found that my first drafts are not so special. But the more I work on them, the better they get. They are more unique and defensible.
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Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.
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Back in 1992, I had my first story accepted by 'The New Yorker.'
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In my case, when I am trying to be kind I often default in a sort of toothless loving-all stance that is, actually, not kind, because it is not truthful.
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I was trained in seismic prospecting. We'd drill a deep hole and put dynamite in the bottom and blow it up remotely, which would give you a cross-sectional picture of the subsurface, which tells you where to drill.
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Monologues, in some ways, are the most scientific descriptions of consciousness and even of gatherings.
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I don't mind being criticized intelligently although I don't love it.
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I've had that my whole career. People were always hedging around the question of: Why are you so dark? What happened to you?
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