George Saunders

And at that time, I think people weren't really talking climate change much.

There's some sense that I saw firsthand of the, that we were kind of running roughshod over the environment in that area and also kind of over the culture.

We were just sort of imperialist, you know.

But mostly for me, it was just thrilling.

You know, we would go into these rainforests where no one had ever set foot and we'd drill these, or not drill, but we'd have the local guys cut a very narrow path and we'd go in and there were tigers.

And it was, you know, for a 22-year-old, it was a thrill.

So, you know, I used that in the book just to get a way into his mind, like somebody who feels positively about this endeavor.

And I could see if I'd been a little more talented at it, I might've, you know, become an executive.

And

those early feelings of tribal pride would probably have just grown and grown.

Right, right.

What I do is I research a bunch for a month.

I just read everything I can find.

And then I take notes and then I just put it away.

The purpose of that is not to ever give someone's biography or to have a real-life basis, but just so that the invention is within the realm of the plausible.

And for the voice and the attitude in fiction, I'm always trying to find a corollary to that person in my mind and then try to build that corollary out.

So with him taking that early oil experience, also kind of superimposing my writing life, the pride I feel in that and the investment I have in that.

And then just sort of growing that out line by line.

And so the game is to kind of make sure that with each one of those, you've done them the service of really listening and really trying to inhabit the world through their point of view.

Yeah, what are you writing?