George Saunders

It was kind of beautiful the way that form, it seemed to arrive just as I needed it.

It was probably the best four years of my life just to show up at the writing room with no anxiety and just literally turn on the spigot and let the ghost start talking.

It was just lovely.

He was softly sobbing, Roger Bevins III.

Are you a practicing Buddhist?

I'm a Buddhist who doesn't practice very much, but yes, it is my spiritual path.

And in the Tibetan tradition, bardo means transitional.

But normally when people use that word, they mean the transition between the moment of your death and whatever is next.

So, originally I thought, oh, I'll just study the Tibetan Book of the Dead and put it in my book.

Well, that's way beyond me.

So, my bardo is kind of a combination of the Tibetan use and then my Catholic purgatory from when I was a kid.

So, the idea is you kind of…

If your life hasn't been entirely satisfactory, then you linger a bit and you kind of are a little bit of a victim of your own neuroses or desires.

And also in the book, the kind of the punchline is that they don't know they're dead.

And as soon as they find out, then they might decide to go onward.

But you're quite happy to use that word.

our crazy minds are somewhat tamped down.

But when you die, the mind goes supersized.

And so whatever your issues are, whether it's love or anxiety or whatever, they get supersized.

That's, I think, in the Tibetan tradition where heaven and hell come from, is if you have a loving heart, get supersized, you're in heaven.