Famous Quotes

"I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar."

George Saunders on Sympathy

More quotes about Sympathy

• "That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind."

  William Wordsworth on Sympathy

• "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength."

  Corrie Ten Boom on Sympathy

• "What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like."

  Saint Augustine on Sympathy

• "When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."

  Khalil Gibran on Sympathy

• "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

  William Shakespeare on Sympathy

More quotes by George Saunders

• "We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish."

• "My habit would have been to veer towards the dark - to prove I was something edgy, or maybe to prove that I was cognisant of the dark side. Now, with age and confidence, I can say, yeah, that's true, but I am cognisant of the fact that people can do things well. And can be more loving than you expect."

• "I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once, kind of humming and sublime."

• "I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar."

• "I'm finding, as I get older, that I'm not much of a believer in redemption. I mean, I believe in redemption in real life - redemption does happen, and it's cool when it does - but I find myself getting leery of my desire for it in stories (especially my own)."