#na

Early on, a story's meaning and rationale seem pretty obvious, but then, as I write it, I realize that I know the meaning/rationale too well, which means that the reader will also know it - and so things have to be ramped up. ↗

— George Saunders

#early #i #i write #know #meaning

I was a big and un-ironic fan of Dear Abby when I was a kid in Chicago. I think I sort of internalized her. So I have this inner Abby: cranky, proper, folksy yet scathing, with a beehive hairdo. But that's my issue. ↗

— George Saunders

#big #chicago #cranky #dear #fan

I was trained in seismic prospecting. We'd drill a deep hole and put dynamite in the bottom and blow it up remotely, which would give you a cross-sectional picture of the subsurface, which tells you where to drill. ↗

— George Saunders

#bottom #deep #drill #dynamite #give

I've had the thought that a person's 'artistic vision' is really just the cumulative combination of whatever particular stances he has sincerely occupied during his creative life - even if some of those might appear contradictory. ↗

— George Saunders

#artistic #combination #contradictory #creative #creative life

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

— George Saunders

#experience #haven #lack #read #voice

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 universal human laws - need, love for the beloved, fear, hunger, periodic exaltation, the kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of hunger/fear/pain - are constant, predictable, reliable, universal, and are merely ornamented with the details of local culture. ↗

— George Saunders

#beloved #constant #culture #details #exaltation

Men would find it much harder because men have such odd personal relationships with each other. They don't really emotionally connect, whereas women do. I think women become very close. ↗

— Jennifer Saunders

#become #close #connect #each #emotionally

In general, the philological movement opened up countless sources relevant to linguistic issues, treating them in quite a different spirit from traditional grammar; for instance, the study of inscriptions and their language. But not yet in the spirit of linguistics. ↗

— Ferdinand de Saussure

#different #general #grammar #inscriptions #instance

Linguistics will have to recognise laws operating universally in language, and in a strictly rational manner, separating general phenomena from those restricted to one branch of languages or another. ↗

— Ferdinand de Saussure

#branch #general #language #languages #laws