George Saunders

Exactly.

And you also – in that mode, you're able to see what you really do well.

Whereas I think when you're in a more luxurious – like in grad school where, you know, it seemed like success was right on the cusp or right on the horizon.

Then you do things – there's a lot of discretionary effort.

Maybe I'll write like Faulkner this week.

Maybe I'll try to do a song cycle, you know.

And then when – once the shit hit the fan, it was kind of like, oh, no, no, no.

See if there's anything you can do that has any charm in it.

And most days there isn't.

But if there is, do that.

That was really good.

It was really simplifying.

No, I tell the story a lot, but I had written a 700-page novel about a wedding in Mexico that was a train wreck.

And I gave it to Paula, and she, you know, she can't lie.

And so she just got about five pages in and just had her head in her hands.

And so I went into work the next day really having a band on a hope, just whatever.

And there was a conference call, and I was supposed to be the note taker, and there was nothing going on.

So I just wrote these kind of scatological notes.

They were pretty funny, you know, and I'd draw an illustration and then brought those home and she read those and loved them.

She laughed out loud at them, you know.