A Hundred Visions and Revisions

George Saunders says he can revise anything he has written, making it better, even if marginally. His confidence is not bluster. If Saunders writes the way he speaks with generosity, with attention-anything must be possible.

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

He makes you think the secret of good writing isn't diligence, but kindness. During an interview with him last month, we did quiz the American author about his new collection of short stories, Liberation Day, but he also took questions about his craft and Buddhism. The dystopias Saunders creates can be discomfiting. Reading them, one sometimes feels the walls closing in, but Saunders ensures that even when he cannot afford his characters heroism, he will gift them truth.

The question is obvious: What makes George Saunders, a Booker winner, so likeable? "In this life, any kind of good manners will get made into a moral virtue, just your basic good manners even," he smiles, waiting patiently for his writing students at Syracuse University.

You are not just a popular writer. You are also very, very loved the world over. Does that kind of affection ever come with its own set of pressures?