Saunders Quotes

You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die. ~ Cicely Saunders

When I'm explaining something to you, if I'm being long-winded, and twisty in a non-productive way, I could make you feel vaguely insulted. And you'd have a right to be. ~ George Saunders

Twitter is a deliberate abstention. Somehow I hate the idea of there always being, in the back of my mind, this little voice saying: 'Oh, I should tweet about this.' ~ George Saunders

If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience. ~ George Saunders

Those stories tended to be located around the places where things went wrong, and people were cruel to one another, and so on. They reflected what was probably the most urgent truth operating in me at that time: oh, shit, things can go wrong, and if they do, people get hurt, and I might be one of them, in spite of the fact that I am, you know, me. ~ George Saunders

I don't think we got the chance to introduce ourselves the other night at the diner. My name is Blake Saunders." He offered his free hand.
Daemon glanced at Blake's hand before returning his gaze to me. "I know who you are."
Oh, geez. I twisted toward Blake. "This is Daemon Black."
His smile faltered. "Yeah, I know who he is, too."
Laughing under his breath, Daemon straightened. At his full height, he was a good head taller than Blake. "It's always nice to meet another fan."
Yeah, Blake had no idea what to say to that. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

I think it was a big revelation to me earlier in my life that people who appear to be evil are actually not. In other words, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "Yuck, yuck, yuck, I'm gonna be evil." ~ George Saunders

Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth. Is life kind or cruel? Yes, Literature answers. Are people good or bad? You bet, says Literature. But unlike other systems of knowing, Literature declines to eradicate one truth in favor of another; rather, it teaches us to abide with the fact that, in their own way, all things are true, and helps us, in the face of this terrifying knowledge, continually push ourselves in the direction of Open the Hell Up. ~ George Saunders

Good general theory does not search for the maximum generality, but for the right generality. ~ Saunders Mac Lane

If you commit to giving more time than you have to spend, you will constantly be running from time debt collectors. ~ Elizabeth Grace Saunders

I find that the great artists I've met are people who are so playfully invested in their process that, even if it doesn't come out the way they like, they still power through and even take energy from it. ~ George Saunders

Doubt will fester as long as we live.
And when one occasion of doubt has been addressed, another and then another will arise in its place. ~ George Saunders

But as an amateur, the highest level you can box at is the Olympics. I did that at 18 and felt it was time to move on to other challenges as a professional. ~ Billy Joe Saunders

That's what a book is: a failed attempt that, its failure notwithstanding, is sincere and hard-worked and expunged of as much falseness as he could manage, given his limited abilities, and has thus been imbued with a sort of purity. ~ George Saunders

Or, if you are Penokio, you will feel like: I wud rather not be made of wud. I wud rather be made of skin, so my father Jipeta will stop hitting me with a hamer. ~ George Saunders

In a sense my whole life as a writer is trying to find structural ways, or formal ways, to permit that outflowing so it doesn't just look like crazy output. In other words, if it turns out that you can do a given voice, that's just kind of inclination. But then if you can find a way to put that voice in a story so that the voice serves a purpose, then I would say that's being a writer. ~ George Saunders

I was in error when I saw him as fixed and stable and thought I would have him forever. He was never fixed, nor stable, but always just a passing, temporary energy-burst. ~ George Saunders

I could actually care less about the poor. We have some living near us, and pee-yew. They are always coming and going to their three or four jobs at all hours of the day and night. Annoying! ~ George Saunders

I've been really lucky because I've managed to become wonderful friends with a handful of very talented British designers. Christopher Kane has become one of my very good friends - also Erdem. Jonathan Saunders is another brilliant talent who's very kind. We all hang out. ~ Laura Carmichael

Time Progression: Wasting >>Spending >> Managing >> Investing ~ Elizabeth Grace Saunders

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

Nonsense is to sense, as shade to light; it heightens effect. ~ Arthur Frederick Saunders

Success makes opportunities and so many of those "opportunities" are actually exemptions - from hardship, from unfriendliness, from struggle. ~ George Saunders

Time debt is as big a problem as financial debt. ~ Elizabeth Grace Saunders

I have often observed that the state of motherhood can turn quite ordinary females into heroines . . . ~ Kate Saunders

American society is uncomfortable with the idea that some people's lives are difficult past the point of sanity and that they aren't necessarily to blame. There's no way you can argue that everyone has a difficult life. This is an incredible culture; the majority of people live in amazing comfort, with real dignity, maybe more comfort and dignity than any other culture in the history of the world. We live relatively safe and sane lives, which, if you've ever loved anybody and therefore feared for them, is a wonderful thing. But part of our moral responsibility is to keep in our minds those whose lives are unsafe and insane. In this way, fiction can be like a meditation, a way of saying: Though things are this way for me right now, they could be different later and are different for others this very moment. ~ George Saunders

Fire-priests have an uncomplicated theology; immolating people purifies them from sin, so the more people you burn to death the less sin there is in the world, and the more holy you are for doing it ~ Graydon Saunders

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. ~ George Saunders

A story is a really weird art object that should contain life but not be enslaved by the banality. ~ George Saunders

Graduate college, win Pam, get job, make babies, move ahead in job, forget former feeling of special destiny ... ~ George Saunders

When you are doing chemo, you have a load of time. ~ Jennifer Saunders

I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people. ~ George Saunders

I felt myself a new species of child. Not a boy (most assuredly) but neither a (mere) girl. That skirt-bound race perpetually moving about serving tea had nothing to do with me.

I had such high hopes, you see.

The boundaries of the world seemed vast. I would visit Rome, Paris, Constantinople. Underground cafés presented in my mind where, crushed against wet walls, a (handsome, generous) friend and I sat discussing - many things. Deep things, new ideas. Strange green lights shone in the streets, the sea lapped nearby against greasy tilted moorings; there was trouble afoot, a revolution, into which my friend and I must - Well, as is often the case, my hopes were…not realized. ~ George Saunders

Who do I like? I am a big fan of French and Saunders - not that that they are particularly stand-up I have to say, but I think they have been great for women and they are of themselves just incredibly funny whether they are male or female. ~ Jo Brand

Some blows fall too heavy upon those too fragile. ~ George Saunders

We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish. ~ George Saunders

The decisive butt-kicking he was about to give the Dalmeyer hose would constitute the end of FIRPO in the world, and all, including Ma, would have to bow down before him, saying, Wow wow wow, do we ever stand corrected in terms of you, how could someone FIRPO hatch and execute such a daring manly plan? The crowd was on its feet ~ George Saunders

I love the feeling of being on the hunt - the feeling that the story is refusing to be solved in some lesser way and is insisting that you see it on its highest terms. ~ George Saunders

In spite of the strife the stars were bright as crystal. ~ George Saunders

But all that power has culminated in gentleness. It is as if that is the point of power: to allow one to access the higher registers of gentleness. ~ George Saunders

America is, and always has been, undecided about whether it will be the United States of Tom or the United States of Huck. The United States of Tom looks at misery and says: Hey, I didn't do it. It looks at inequity and says: All my life I busted my butt to get where I am, so don't come crying to me. Tom likes kings, codified nobility, unquestioned privilege. Huck likes people, fair play, spreading the truck around. Whereas Tom knows, Huck wonders. Whereas Huck hopes, Tom presumes. Whereas Huck cares, Tom denies. These two parts of the American Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the nation, and come to think of it, these two parts of the World Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the world, and the hope of the nation and of the world is to embrace the Huck part and send the Tom part back up the river, where it belongs. ~ George Saunders

Because I loved him so and am in the habit of loving him and that love must take the form of fussing and worry and doing. Only ~ George Saunders

We left home, married, had children of our own, found the seeds of meanness blooming also within us. Dad began dresssing the pole with more complexity and less discernible logic. He draped some kind of fur over it on Groundhog Day and lugged out a floodlight to ensure a shadow. ~ George Saunders

Dean Swift proposed to tax beauty, and to leave every lady to rate her own charms; he said the tax would be cheerfully paid and very productive. ~ Arthur Frederick Saunders

I was a straight arrow, a control freak. I didn't do drugs or drink, and this was the '70s. I didn't like the loss of control. Which isn't exactly right, because I didn't know what happened when you did drugs. ~ George Saunders

There was no closing my eyes and sliding back into that blissful dream of normal. This was my normal now. ~ Kelley Armstrong

The pathos of man is that he hungers for personal fulfillment and for a sense of community with others. ~ Jay Saunders Redding

And this fine young prince had fallen in love with a Nobody from Nowhere -- as princes sometimes do, though not as often as romantic tradition would have you believe. ~ Kate Saunders

Or to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who in your life, do you remember most fondly, with the most feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.
It's a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I'd say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than: Try to be kinder. ~ George Saunders

It was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new desire rising from within it. ~ George Saunders

What good the prophet in the wilderness may do is incremental and personal. It's good for us to hear someone speak the irrational truth. It's good for us when, in spite of all of the sober, pragmatic, and even correct arguments that war is sometimes necessary someone says: war is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the weakest being. ~ George Saunders

Realism is to fiction what gravity is to walking: a confinement that allows dancing under the right circumstances. ~ George Saunders

Good God, but life could be less than easy, not that he was unaware that it could certainly be a lot worse, but to go about in such a state, pulse high, face red, worried sick that someone would notice how nervous one was, was certainly less than ideal, and he felt sure that his body was secreting all kinds of harmful chemicals and that the more he worried about the harmful chemicals the faster they were pouring out of wherever it was they came from. ~ George Saunders

There was a touch of prairie about the fellow.
--hans vollman

Yes.
--roger bevins iii

Like stepping into a summer barn late at night.
--hans vollman

Or a musty plains office, where some bright candle still burns.
--roger bevins iii

Vast. Windswept. New. Sad.
--hans vollman

Spacious. Curious. Doom-minded. Ambitious.
--roger bevins iii

Back slightly out.
--hans vollman

Right boot chafing.
--roger bevins iii ~ George Saunders

I often think about image, and image is something that - but in truth, the real artistic process, as I've understood it, is 95 percent intuitive, like seat-of-the-pants, at-the-moment decisions that you can't even explain, you know? ~ George Saunders

My walk home
in spring
smells like
childhood piano lessons
dipped in jasmine
tapped out
like three note songs on
elevated on telephone books ~ Kirli Saunders

Father," she said late one night. "I can't keep up. Our goats are dying. We're going to have to ask the neighbors for help."
"Have we ever done that before?" he said.
"We've never needed help before," said Capable.
"Well I'm against it," he said. "If we haven't done it before, it stands to reason that this time is the first time we've done it, which means that, relative to what we've done in the past, this is different, which I am very much against, as I always have been, as you well know. I have consistently been very very consistent about this. ~ George Saunders

Ma was out back, head in hands, weaving in and out of her heaped-up crap. It was both melodramatic and not. I mean, when Ma feels something deeply, that's what she does: melodrama. Which makes it, I guess, not melodrama? ~ George Saunders

I think even like Saddam Hussein or Hitler would wake up and say, "I think it's going to be a good day. I'm gonna do some really important work." And given their definition of good, they went out and did horrible things. ~ George Saunders

I think when Madonna did sexy stuff, she looked more in control. And I think it looked more like she was breaking boundaries. Today, it feels like it's pandering to everything that's wrong, and I don't think it's nice, especially for young girls. ~ Jennifer Saunders

... perfectionists often produce very little. ~ Elizabeth Grace Saunders

I guess I was sad that love was not real? Or not all that real, anyway? I guess I was sad that love could feel so real and the next minute be gone, and all because of something Abnesti was doing. ~ George Saunders

You dial another college friend, Dr. Saunders, and she picks up almost immediately, 'Hi! Got a shitstorm here, what's up? ~ A.J. Lauer

They were both so scared they weren't talking at all, which made me feel the kind of shame you know you're not going to cure by saying sorry, and where the only thing to do is: go out, get more shame. ~ George Saunders

I'm trying to read/edit my story as if I have no existing knowledge of the story, no investment in it, no sense of what Herculean effort went into writing page 23, no pretensions as to why the dull patch on page 4 is important for the fireworks that will happen on page 714. ~ George Saunders

I've seen time and time again the way that the process of trying to say something
dignifies and improves a person. ~ George Saunders

You get crushes on people. You have to see them every day in that week. They're a fantastic person, and it could be a man or a woman. ~ Jennifer Saunders

I hate the world sometimes," Anthea said. "The unfairness of it. I won't force you to see me if you don't want to - but nobody can stop me loving you, and I'll wait for you all my life if I have to. ~ Kate Saunders

True beauty is in the mind; and the expression of the features depends more upon the moral nature than most persons are accustomed to think. ~ Arthur Frederick Saunders

A John Updike is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, if that generation is lucky: so comfortable in so many genres, the same lively, generous intelligence suffusing all he did. ~ George Saunders

Kill every dog, every cat, she said slowly. Kill every mouse, every bird. Kill every fish. Anyone objects, kill them too. ~ George Saunders

The right to die can easily become the duty to die. ~ Peter Saunders

Nobody planned the global capitalist system, nobody runs it, and nobody really comprehends it. This particularly offends intellectuals, for capitalism renders them redundant. It gets on perfectly well without them. ~ Peter Saunders

Do I pass, Dr. Saunders? ~ Kelley Armstrong

Like all girls, when I was growing up, I always worried about this bit of me being too fat or that bit. But I look back at pictures of me when I was young, and I was thin and gorgeous. ~ Jennifer Saunders

Kind words are benedictions. The are not only instruments of power, but of benevolence and courtesy; blessings both to the speaker and hearer of them. ~ Arthur Frederick Saunders

I'd always said that I'd like to have a title by the next Olympics, so this is a great opportunity, and could be the start of my climb to a world title. ~ Billy Joe Saunders

How could something that started out with such good intentions end so badly? ~ Chris Saunders

It seems to me that there are certain thoughts and vignettes and attitudes that I have always had the desire to represent. ~ George Saunders

Success is like a mountain in front of you that keeps growing. If you're not careful, it will take up your whole life. ~ George Saunders

'Pastoralia' by George Saunders is one of my favorite novels. ~ Zooey Deschanel

The best practitioners give to their patients the least medicine. ~ Arthur Frederick Saunders

His mind was freshly inclined toward sorrow; toward the fact that the world was full of sorrow; that everyone labored under some burden of sorrow; that all were suffering; that whatever way one took in this world, one must try to remember that all were suffering (none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood), and therefore one must do what one could to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact; that his current state of sorrow was not uniquely his, not at all, but, rather, its like had been felt, would be felt, by scores of others, in all times, in every time, and must not be prolonged or exaggerated, because, in this state, he could be of no help to anyone and, given that his position in the world situated him to be either of great help, or great harm, it would not do to stay low, if he could help it. ~ George Saunders

I'm fighting for the Commonwealth title on Saturday and I believe I'll be ready for a world title shot in the next 18 months. ~ Billy Joe Saunders

I say it must have been great to grow up when men were men. He says men have always been what the are now, namely incapable of coping with life without the intervention of God the Almighty. Then in the oven behind him my pizza starts smoking and he says case in point. ~ George Saunders

My recommendation is to keep up the good work. I'm changing your title to senior executive assistant, and giving you a three percent raise effective next payday. Congratulations."
Wow, three percent. I could move up that early retirement plan to age seventy-five now, instead of eighty. Lucky me.
Thank you," I said. "That's very generous."
You're quite welcome." Ms. Saunders nodded and grabbed a gold-plated letter opener to begin attacking her stack of mail.
I turned to leave. Didn't want to outstay my welcome.
Damn it!" she exclaimed, and I turned back around. She winced and nodded at the letter opener that she'd dropped to her desktop. "Damn thing slipped. I'm probably going to need stitches now. Can you be a dear and fetch the first-aid kit for me?"
She held her left index finger and frowned at the steady flow of blood oozing out. A few small drops of red splashed onto the other letters spread out on the desk.
I felt woozy. And suddenly dizzy.
I blinked.
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer standing by the door about to leave. I was crouched down next to Ms. Saunders's imported black leather chair, grasping her wrist tightly…… and sucking noisily on her fingertip.
I shrieked and let go of her, staggering backward. I grabbed at her desk to keep from falling, but I dropped on my butt, anyhow, taking most of the contents of the top of her desk with me.
She held her injured finger far away from her and stared at me, wide- ~ Michelle Rowen

I'm very happy - if I can do even a little bit of work to get the short story out more, I'm thrilled. ~ George Saunders

True it is, as society is instituted, marriage becomes somewhat of a lottery, for all its votaries are either the victims of Cupid or cupidity; in either instance, they are under the blinding influence of passion, and consequently but little subject to the control of reason. ~ Arthur Frederick Saunders

All will be well and all will be well, etc., etc.,

Todd ~ George Saunders

At home, I relax by gardening, or just pottering. ~ Jennifer Saunders

I can remember the first face-lift show that came on. I rang up everyone - are you watching? I'm watching. ~ Jennifer Saunders

And so, a prediction, and my heartfelt wish for you: as you get older, your self will diminish and you will grow in love. YOU will gradually be replaced by LOVE. If you have kids, that will be a huge moment in your process of self-diminishment. You really won't care what happens to YOU, as long as they benefit. That's one reason your parents are so proud and happy today. One of their fondest dreams has come true: you have accomplished something difficult and tangible that has enlarged you as a person and will make your life better, from here on in, forever. ~ George Saunders

In my work, and in my psyche, there's some very sentimental, traditional, conventional side that's always in argument with a more radical, sarcastic side. Some of my stories are really sentimental, but they're layered over with weird, satirical stuff. ~ George Saunders

So many people mentioned this at these rallies. You go to these things and it's kind of like an oldies concert. I mean, it's not hostile. ~ George Saunders

Even the nuns went racist after the convent was reappraised and it seemed their pension fund was in jeopardy. ~ George Saunders

A hip-looking teen watches an elderly woman hobble across the street on a walker.
"Grammy's here!" he shouts.
He puts some MacAttack Mac&Cheese in the microwave and dons headphones and takes out a video game so he won't be bored during the forty seconds it takes his lunch to cook. A truck comes around the corner and hits Grammy, sending her flying over the roof into the backyard, where luckily she lands on a trampoline. Unluckily, she bounces back over the roof, into the front yard, landing on a rosebush. ~ George Saunders

It is soon to be spring
The Christmas toys barely played with
I have a glass soldier whose head can turn
The epaulettes interchangeable
Soon flowers will bloom
Lawrence from the garden shed will give us
each a cup of seeds

I am to wait
I said ~ George Saunders

[P]eople think of compassion as, like, kindness. The image comes to mind of some nice New Age guy bending to something with a look on his face like he's about to cry. And I don't think that's it. I think of it more as a quality of openness that comes with being in a state of unusual attentiveness. ~ George Saunders

Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow Darwinian. These are: (1) we're central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the main and most interesting story, the only story, really); (2) we're separate from the universe (there's US and then, out there, all that other junk - dogs and swing-sets, and the State of Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know, other people), and (3) we're permanent (death is real, o.k., sure - for you, but not for me). ~ George Saunders

What we're doing in writing is not all that different from what we've been doing all our lives, i.e., using our personalities as a way of coping with life. Writing is about charm, about finding and accessing and honing ones' particular charms. To say that "a light goes on" is not quite right - it's more like: a fixture gets installed. Only many years later ... will the light go on. ~ George Saunders