George Saunders Quotes

I think the media's primarily an interesting backdrop - a fertile backdrop, in which we can discuss a great deal involving the human condition. We're not trying to lecture the media on how it should be doing its job or lecture people on who they should be voting for, but it does provide an incredible backdrop on which we can paint a lot of pictures and open up a lot of discussions.

There is so much we can learn from TV. It's a window on the world.

You get to be wiser by storying the world and seeing it through other forms of consciousness than your own.

So at a time in which the media give the public everything it wants and desires, maybe art should adopt a much more aggressive attitude towards the public. I myself am very much inclined to take this position.

If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.

There's nothing wrong with being shallow as long as you're insightful about it.

The level of discourse in this country is falling to a depth that cannot be sustained.

The cartoons which I enjoy have caused some kind of out rage, but they have got people talking about these issues out in the open and in essence that's what its all about.

Literature helps us transcend ourselves.

If religion comes into the public square, it is as vulnerable as any other human institution to be pelted with produce. Ignorance does not become wisdom just because you gussy it up with the Gospels.

My own being can be judged by the depths I reach in making these historical origins my own.

It's important that people understand who I am and where I come from and not just have it shaped by purely political discourse.

The purpose of education is to keep a culture from being drowned in senseless repetitions, each of which claims to offer a new insight.

I don't see myself as a rock star. I don't see myself in that way. I'm interested in work that offers some sort of critical dialogue.

People have to identify with their own stories, with their own lives, so a movie belongs to a country and to a culture. Sometimes we can share, but it's very rare.

Modern Americans - shaped by raucous politics and a rapacious media - like to think of themselves as experts in confronting mistakes.

I almost became a political journalist, having worked as a reporter at the time of Watergate. The proximity to those events motivated me, when I wound up doing philosophy, to try to use it to move the public debate.

I wanted to make films that were culturally relevant in my own country, that challenged people, and that people talked about.

Injecting new ideas into public debate is the supreme function of the newspaper columnist. Politicians and civil servants absolutely will not take the risk.

You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.

'Looking' is more than just a television show. It's contributing to the cultural conversation, and for me, those are the most exciting projects to be a part of.

The idea of taking classic American stories and reinterpreting them for a time and place is not just commercially viable. These stories also carry a sensual nature of what it meant to be an American, and they deserve to be reinterpreted.

What's so great about 'Gone Girl' is the conversations it provokes.

In the last few years in particular, I've found that it's okay to let go of culture rather than hold on to it. And by letting go, you kind of realise that it's there anyway.

Chinese people need to be aware of their present and ask, 'What's our culture? What can we bring to the world?' I don't think there's anything wrong with that.