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For me, things were either very sullied or very pure, very controlled or very under-controlled.

George Saunders

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George Saunders
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: December 2
Essayist
Fantasy Author
Geological Engineer
Geophysicist
Journalist
Novelist
Professor
Prosaist
Short Story Writer
Teacher
Amarillo
Texas
Sullied
Controlled
Pure
Either
Things

More quotes by George Saunders

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The one thing about A Christmas Carol that always bothers me is that Cratchit is so sweet and perfect. He's like an Ivy League kid who just is labeled poor. He doesn't have any bad habits. He's never cranky with his kids.
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I'm not a natural criticizer - I prefer to like and praise and so on.
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And I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations. It could be that it would take me 12 more books at six years each to get it - which means I would have to live to be 126. Which I fully intend to do, of course.
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In fiction, conceptualizing, I've found, produces dull and over-controlled text.
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Compassion doesn't have to be weak or enabling it can also be quite bold.
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When I think about what fiction does morally, I'm happier thinking of a person full of multiplicities - sort of fragmented.
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I would say one thing writing this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] did for me was underscore the fact that this issue [all men are created equal] has never been properly addressed and it hasn't gone away.
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Stay alert. The big moral crossroads in your life may not come labeled as such.
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What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
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I think this is the other big issue that is not going away: Do we really believe that bit in the Constitution or not? I think we do.
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Kindness can mean a lot of different things. In this case, I felt I had to present his [Donald Trump's] supporters in as fair a light as possible - many of them hadn't been interviewed before and that entailed some interviewer-courtesy in the editing and so on.
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I try to keep my artistic opinions not so much to myself but on myself.
George Saunders
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If you're going to make an emotional connection with somebody, whether it's in the story or in the world, there's a certain amount of self-acceptance that is required.
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Whatever you love, that will be an influence. It just will. So in effect the young writer's job is: go out and find some stuff to love.
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It's a time when a lot of principle virtues are being tested. Do we still believe in the truth? Do we still believe in empathy? Do we still believe the protection of the weakest among us? These are yes or no questions, but the means of communication is all tied up with those virtues and you can't abandon those virtues as you pursue them.
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The best thing we can bring to any fight is a calm and compassionate mind.
George Saunders
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Social media sometimes feels like a vehicle for one-dimensional sniping, more than true criticism.
George Saunders
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I don't mind being criticized intelligently although I don't love it.
George Saunders
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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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The writer, in order to proceed, is theoretically trying to predict where his complex skein of language and image has left his reader, who he has likely never met and who is actually thousands of readers.
George Saunders