#mo

It seems to me a worthy goal: try to create a representation of consciousness that's durable and truthful, i.e., that accounts, somewhat, for all the strange, tiny, hard-to-articulate, instantaneous, unwilled things that actually go on in our minds in the course of a given day, or even a given moment. ↗

— George Saunders

#actually #consciousness #course #create #day

It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't happened anymore. ↗

— George Saunders

#cut #fiction #funny #happened #hasn

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

#days #doing #each #evil #find

My habit would have been to veer towards the dark - to prove I was something; edgy, or maybe to prove that I was cognisant of the dark side. Now, with age and confidence, I can say, yeah, that's true, but I am cognisant of the fact that people can do things well. And can be more loving than you expect. ↗

— George Saunders

#am #been #confidence #dark #dark side

Sometimes I think fiction exists to model the way God might think of us, if God had the time and inclination to do so. ↗

— George Saunders

#fiction #god #had #i #i think

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

#arises #asking #become #close #constantly

There might be a different model for a literary community that's quicker, more real-time, and involves more spontaneity. ↗

— George Saunders

#different #involves #literary #might #model

There's a really nice moment in the life of a piece of writing where the writer starts to get a feeling of it outgrowing him - or he starts to see it having a life of its own that doesn't have anything to do with his ego or his desire to 'be a good writer.' ↗

— George Saunders

#desire #ego #feeling #get #good

We have that illusion that we are 'deciding' what to make a character do, in order to 'convey our message' or something like that. But, at least in my experience, you are often more like a river-rafting guide who's been paid a bonus to purposely steer your clients into the roughest possible water. ↗

— George Saunders

#bonus #character #clients #convey #deciding

When I write I know that I'm going to have to produce 40 percent more than I need. ↗

— George Saunders

#i #i write #know #more #need