#ra

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

#built #cool #desert #disney #dubai

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

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

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 was a kid, I took 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' very seriously. It was a world to me in the same way that the Greek myths would have been had I read them. You know, Marcia is Athena and Mr. Brady is Zeus. ↗

— George Saunders

#brady #bunch #family #greek #had

When something really bad is going on in a culture, the average guy doesn't see it. He can't. He's average and is surrounded by and immersed in the cant and discourse of the status quo. ↗

— George Saunders

#average guy #bad #cant #culture #discourse

You don't want to be that parent - the one who dresses his kid in a cloth sack when all the other kids are in Armani cloth sacks - especially in a time like ours, when materialism is not only rampant and ascendant but is fast becoming the only game in town. ↗

— George Saunders

#ascendant #becoming #cloth #dresses #especially

You know, you can talk about race, you can talk about sex, you can talk about your biopsy. But when you get into class, people kind of clench up. ↗

— George Saunders

#class #get #into #kind #know

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

— Jennifer Saunders

#everyone #first #i #i can #rang

I love the TV show, and if you make a bad movie it means you've soiled it. Just like if we made an advert. We were offered so many times and I'd say, look, this is the good thing, and you can't compromise that, because then you compromise the integrity of the characters. ↗

— Jennifer Saunders

#bad #because #characters #compromise #good