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I guess: People who are comfortable enough with reality to allow other sorts of realities and other mindsets to just be, and then to regard these with real interest and joy [and the joy appears in the prose quality itself].

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
Real
Guess
People
Regard
Comfortable
Joy
Realities
Quality
Sorts
Interest
Prose
Reality
Appears
Enough
Allow

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The word 'funny' is a bit like the word 'love' - we don't have enough words to describe the many varieties.
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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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It's one thing to be a perfectionist when you're alone, but when you're trying to make it work in an ensemble that's a whole different deal.
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What evil does first in the world, maybe, is distract us from our pursuit of goodness.
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The millions or billions of micro decisions that you're going to make, that's what will determine who you are as a writer, not you deciding in advance.
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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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Some of our writers are starting to incorporate elements of social media, etc. in the work itself, which is all for the good, I think - finding new ways of being poetic.
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If I go to the coffee shop and have a nice interaction with the barista, I don't know what that does for world peace, but we have to assume that in the great basket of goodness maybe that's one little micron or one little neutron that you've put in there.
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In my personal and spiritual life, I reject that. I don't believe in that. I'm always trying to get my mind into a less judgmental place, making less rigid judgments about things like perverse versus pure. But in terms of prose, those sorts of oppositions seem to work.
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Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it... Err in the direction of kindness.
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What a powerful thing to know: That one's own desires are mappable onto strangers that what one finds in oneself will most certainly be found in The Other.
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It's so ironic that you often hear these right-wing people talking about the Constitution.
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The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.
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Social media sometimes feels like a vehicle for one-dimensional sniping, more than true criticism.
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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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Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.
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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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Sometimes I think fiction exists to model the way God might think of us, if God had the time and inclination to do so.
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The greatest thing about writing a book is that at first it's all inchoate, but the more you work on it, the more the book teaches you its internal rules.
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If I find myself being too earnest and sentimental and hyperbolic and simplistic, which is definitely a tendency I have, then I bring in this perverse henchman.
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