George Saunders Quotes

Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to.

I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

My heart goes out to him. Sort of. Because empathy depends on how you've spent your day.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored.