I started out in engineering. I was a geophysical engineer. Throughout the course of my life Ive 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
If you think of a work of fiction as a kind of scale model of the world, then the positive valences – where things turn out better than you thought they would – ought to be in there somewhere, too. – George Saunders
If death is in the room, its pretty interesting. But I would also say that Im interested in getting myself to believe that its going to happen to me. Im interested in it, because if youre not, youre nuts. Its really de facto what were here to find out about. – George Saunders
Its funny with fiction – once you cut something, it hasnt happened anymore. – George Saunders
In marriage there are no manners to keep up, and beneath the wildest accusations no real criticism. Each is familiar with that ancient child in the other who may erupt again…. We are not ridiculous to ourselves. We are ageless. That is the luxury of the wedding ring. – Enid Bagnold, Autobiography, 1969