Can You Learn to Identify Your Crappinesses?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

"The story is breathing it. It's like it's deciding where it wants to go," he says of his writing process. "One of the things is, can you learn to identify your different crappinesses? You know?" He adds: "Those are beautiful clothes that just don't fit you exactly."

George Saunders is the author of eleven books. His latest is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life.

”I really have so much affection for being alive. I really enjoy it. And yet, I’m a little negative minded in a lot of ways too, like I really think things tend to be fucked up. ... To get that on the page—to sufficiently praise the loveliness of the world without being a sap, and also lacerate the world for being so goddamn mean—to do those in the same story would be a great aspiration. And I haven’t gotten there yet.”

Show notes: