George Saunders

And I thought, oh, my God, I've been having this since I was eight years old.

You know, kind of the little pep talk you give yourself when you're feeling nervous.

And at that point, I thought, I wonder if I'll be doing this when I'm 90.

And a little boy said, yeah, of course you will.

So that stuff happens more and more.

And you start to see yourself as a kind of patterned, repetitive being, for better or worse.

And that kind of makes for a certain relaxation.

Like, oh, I'm just trapped.

I'm trapped inside this guy.

And I can work with him a little more, maybe.

Something like that.

Well, there's one.

I'm sure you read this, but I Will Bear Witness by Victor Klemper.

It's incredible.

And there's one volume that covers— Can you describe what it is?

Yeah.

Somebody described it as the first book that shows the Holocaust in color as opposed to black and white.

So he's a professor, and I think he's in Dresden.

And there's this unforgettable scene where he goes into the butcher who he's known for years.

And the butcher says, Herr Professor, I'm so sorry, but I, you know, it's not me, it's Berlin.