I started out in engineering. I was a geophysical engineer. Throughout the course of my life I've done a lot of strange jobs, and the effect has been to make me think a little more skeptically about our capitalist society. George Saunders capitalisteffectengineer share on social
We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish. George Saunders ageaspiredie Change image and share on social
More and more these days what I find myself doing in my stories is making a representation of goodness and a representation of evil and then having those two run at each other full-speed, like a couple of PeeWee football players, to see what happens. Who stays standing? Whose helmet goes flying off? George Saunders coupledayevil share on social
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. George Saunders desirefindmappable Change image and share on social
Nostalgia is, 'Hey, remember the other mall that used to be there?' George Saunders heymallnostalgia Change image and share on social
The mind is a machine that is constantly asking: What would I prefer? Close your eyes, refuse to move, and watch what your mind does. What it does is become discontent with that-which-is. A desire arises, you satisfy that desire, and another arises in its place. George Saunders arisecloseconstantly share on social
To me, the writer's main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared - she's right there, seeing things happen and caring about them. And if you dedicate yourself to this job, the meanings more or less take care of themselves. That's the theory, anyway. George Saunders carededicatehappen share on social
Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up. George Saunders crankhonestyirony Change image and share on social
The cool parts - the parts that have won Dubai its reputation as 'the Vegas of the Middle East' or 'the Venice of the Middle East' or 'the Disney World of the Middle East, if Disney World were the size of San Francisco and out in a desert' - have been built in the last ten years. George Saunders buildcooldesert share on social
Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as technical objects when they're being written. Or at least they do for me. They're the result of thousands of decisions made at speed during revision. George Saunders decisionemanationintention share on social