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
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
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
I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesnt eradicate the reality of the suffering. Its all true at once, kind of humming and sublime. – George Saunders