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.

I have devoted my life to uncertainty. Certainty is the death of wisdom, thought, creativity.

If we have too much clarity, we might not be compelled to continue searching for new ideas.

I have so many ideas; there are so many things that need to be done, so many possibilities, you know; one is terribly excited, but at the same time, you're almost confused, because you don't know where to begin.

When nothing is sure, everything is possible.

The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.

We always have a take that's 'one for fun', so once you've got what you need, you can do what you like. Something does occasionally pop out of that tree. I'm always open to ideas.

I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.

That's what I'm interested in: the space in between, the moment of imagining what is possible and yet not knowing what that is.

I couldn't tell you what I am going to do next 'cause I have no idea, but I am open to anything.

I've learned to never rule anything in or out.

If you are open-minded and you let the universe come in, you never know where things might go.

I am always living in the now, so I like what fate brings to you. That's always fun for me. To have a process and someone be like, 'How about this?' And you just grab onto that and see where it takes you.

I think that cynicism is the enemy. Cynicism thinks it knows how things work. "Oh yeah, you know how that works." I think uncertainty is the thing you have to keep embracing. You have to keep saying, I actually don't know, and going out is going to tell me something every time.

That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.

Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they'll turn out. You're curious and smart and bored, and all you see is the choice between working hard and slacking off. There are so many adventures that you miss because you're waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices. And remember that you are always making up the future as you go.

I was always willing to say, "Let's see what happens," when something came up that looked like it might help me get a little closer to where I wanted to be . . .

If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives.

I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.

We crave explanations for most everything, but innovation and progress happen when we allow ourselves to embrace uncertainty.

With students, one is often in the position where you have to be authoritative about what they're doing and connected to some principle. I prefer not really knowing the answer to anything interesting and I try to encourage that in teaching. If I start to feel certain about something my curiosity goes away, my mind shuts down. I'm sure that's not always true, it's stupid to generalise.

I'd like to recover some of the strangeness and wonder of consideration of the future.

The biggest threat to a better life is the desire to keep the future under control - to make the world predictable by reining in creativity and enterprise. Progress as a neat blueprint, with no deviations and no surprise, may work in children's cartoons or utopian novels. But it's just a fantasy.

I shall always be able to come up with new fantasies. As long as there are people walking around in the street, as long as I have books to read and windows to look out of, I'm not going to use them up.

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.