Reading · Austin Kleon · RSS Amplifier

Describe a perfect day where you live. If my mind is right, any day is perfect. If not, not. Happy / Sad [two-headed monster] "It's your mind, man!" A wise friend.

Hey y’all,

George Saunders is the award-winning author of a dozen books, including his latest #1 New York Times bestseller, Vigil. He writes a wildly-popular Substack called Story Club with George Saunders that explores how the short story works. This typewriter interview was conducted via the magic of the United States Postal Service. (For a plain-text version with links and a few extra notes from me, see the P.S. below.)

"What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes?" (C. Jung) Dream/fantasize. A rosy future! [pic of GS, age 10] One of our daughters called this state "imaginating."

John Waters says he has "youth spies" that keep him up-to-date on culture. Do you have any youth spies? Well, I teach, which is good - but I think art depends on being in touch with something ageless [+] eternal within - which might require reject[ing] so-called "culture," you know?

Do you have any hobbies? Do you collect anything? I love music - listening to it and playing it - it gives me a nice case of beginner mind that I can then bring back to my writing. I collect (I have recently realized) old family photos - just set up a new study with 100s of them

What's your relationship to music? Do you sing or play an instrument? What song do you never get tired of? I play guitar, bass and a little pedal steel. I never get tired of "One Sunday morning" by WILCO.

Do you see yourself as part of an artistic lineage? Who would you place in your creative family tree? Yes! M. Python [?] Chekhov Tobias Wolff Hemingway KA Porter Gogol T. Morrison Vonnegut Tolstoy Grace Paley [BADLY DRAWN TREE!]

I "smoke" a cigarette pencil in the studio. Do you perform any silly rituals when you're working? 1) Chain-drink coffee 2) Sometimes pretzels and/or graham crackers 3) Mostly, try to settle into a certain frame of mind! "Serious but not solemn" = create a playful but reverent mind.

What do you do for exercise? Do you detect any mental, spiritual, or creative benefits? I pledge to go to the gym, then don't. Creative benefit: more time to work. :)

What flaw in your character has most led to your success in life? Obsessive work ethic. With a little care, this can be "craft." It can also, unpoliced, go too far... and result in the false belief that accomplishment = peace. (It isn't.)

Do you have any advice for people who want to be more creative? - Put in the time - Don't (merely) plan: LAUNCH IN. - Time with a work makes clear what the problems are -- time finds solutions. "Don't worry - work!" R. Frost, supposedly.

Big thanks to George for being the 27th participant in this series of typewriter interviews.

Go out and buy a copy of Vigil and subscribe to Story Club with George Saunders!

Shout-out to paid subscribers who buy me the time to do all the email coordinating, typing, snail-mailing, scanning, transcribing, and editing that goes into these! You can make more of these happen with a click of a button:

xoxo,

Austin

P.S. I’ve been studying and admiring Saunders for over half my life. (There’s a story about him in Don’t Call It Art.) Here is a 19-year-old sketchbook page from a G.S. reading I attended in Oberlin, Ohio in April 2007:

Typewriter interview with George Saunders

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