1
It was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new desire rising from within it.George Saunders
2
I guess you just have to trust your kids, trust that their innate interest in life will win out in the end, don’t you think?George Saunders
3
A bad thing happened to you kids, Dad said. But it could have been worse. So much worse, Mom said. But because of you kids, Dad said, it wasn't. You did so good, Mom said. Did beautiful, Dad said.George Saunders
4
One of pleasures of parenting, future reader: parent can positively influence kid, make moment kid will remember for rest of life, moment that alters his/her trajectory, opens up his/her heart + mind.George Saunders
5
Dad had once said, Trust your mind, Rob. If it smells like shit but has writing across it that says Happy Birthday and a candle stuck down in it, what is it? Is there icing on it? he'd said. Dad had done that thing of squinting his eyes when an answer was not quite there yet.George Saunders
6
Do not really like rich people, as they make us poor people feel dopey and inadequate. Not that we are poor. I would say we are middle. We are very, very lucky. I know that. But still, it is not right that rich people make us middle people feel dopey and inadequate.George Saunders
7
Josh joined her at the window. She let him look. He should know that the world was not all lessons and iguanas and Nintendo. It was also this muddy simple boy tethered like an animal.George Saunders
8
Every step was a victory. He had to remember that.George Saunders
9
After that came her biggie: a triple murder--her dealer, the dealer's sister, and the dealer's sister's boyfriend. Reading that made me feel a little funny that we'd fucked and I'd loved her.George Saunders
10
Is this the baby?" I said. Ma turned on me again." What do you think it is?" she said. "A midget that can't talk?George Saunders
11
From across the woods, as if by common accord, birds left their trees and darted upward. I joined them, flew amount them, they did not recognize me as something apart from them, and I was happy, so happy, because for the first time in years, and forevermore, I had not killed, and never would.George Saunders
12
The thing about girls? Suzanne said. Is we are more content-driven.George Saunders