The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil Quotes

“Though firm, we are never too firm, though we love fun, we never have fun in a silly way that makes us appear ridiculous, unless that is our intent.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“My people!" he shouted in the stentorian voice. "I shall speak now of us! Who are we? We are an articulate people, yet a people of few words. We feel deeply, yet refrain from embarrassing displays of emotion. Though firm, we are never too firm, though we love fun, we never have fun in a silly way that makes us appear ridiculous, unless that is our intent. Our national coloration, though varied, is consistent. Everything about us is as it should be, for example, we can be excessive when excess is called for, and yet, even in our excess, we show good taste, although never is our taste so super-refined as to seem precious. Even the extent to which we are moderate is moderate, except when we have decided to be immoderately moderate, or even shockingly flamboyant, at which time our flamboyance is truly breathtaking in a really startling way, and when we decide to make mistakes, our mistakes are as big and grand and irrevocable as any nation's colossal errors, and when we decide to deny our mistakes, we sound just as if we are telling the truth, and when we decide to admit our errors, we do so in a way that is truly moving in its extreme frankness! Am I making sense? Am I saying this well?”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“Then, the massive hands lifted the new people up to a pair of giant indescribable lips and whispered, in a fundamentally untranslatable Creator-language, something that meant, approximately: THIS TIME, BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER. REMEMBER: EACH OF YOU WANTS TO BE HAPPY. AND I WANT YOU TO. EACH OF YOU WANTS TO LIVE FREE FROM FEAR. AND I WANT YOU TO. EACH OF YOU ARE SECRETLY AFRAID YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. BUT YOU ARE, TRUST ME, YOU ARE.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“sir, the nation is tense," said Cliff gravely. " It is asking itself how it can possibly stand idly by drinking gourmet coffee when an entire race is about to be disassembled. It wants to Enjoy, yes, but it feels it won't be able to fully Enjoy until some other closure is reached.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“Our country is big, let us be big.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“Life is full of beauty. Why fight? Why hate? Learn to enjoy, and you will have no need to fight, and no desire to! Love life, walk in a circle, learn to enjoy coffee!”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“Actually, Phil felt, he wasn’t feeling all that well. He was feeling totally devanced in terms of how good he could think. Where was that stupid brain? Where dud he left it? That thing had been offen a long time. No wonder no salvation thoughts were come winging out of him.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“When I advocated resistance I certainly didn't mean that," said Curtis, looking guiltily over at the little blue dot.

"What did you mean?" said Carol.

“Well, I meant some, ah, conversational resistance,” Curtis said, blinking nervously. “A period during which we would say challenging but polite things, things which might cause them to possibly consider reassessing their positions vis-à-vis us.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“I’ll tell you something else about which I’ve been lately thinking!” he bellowed in a suddenly stentorian voice. “I've been thinking about our beautiful country! Who gave it to us? I’ve been thinking about how God the Almighty gave us this beautiful sprawling land as a reward for how wonderful we are. We’re big, we’re energetic, we’re generous, which is reflected in all our myths, which are so very populated with large high-energy folks who give away all they have! If we have a National Virtue, it is that we are generous, if we have a National Defect, it is that we are too generous! Is it our fault that these little jerks have such a small crappy land? I think not! God Almighty gave them that small crappy land for reasons of His own. It is not my place to start cross-examining God Almighty, asking why He gave them such a small crappy land, my place is to simply enjoy and protect the big bountiful land God Almighty gave us!”

Suddenly Phil didn’t seem like quite so much of a nobody to the other Outer Hornerites. What kind of nobody was so vehement, and used so many confusing phrases with so much certainty, and was so completely accurate about how wonderful and generous and underappreciated they were?”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“language, something that meant, approximately: THIS TIME, BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER. REMEMBER: EACH OF YOU WANTS TO BE HAPPY. AND I WANT YOU TO. EACH OF YOU WANTS TO LIVE FREE FROM FEAR. AND I WANT YOU TO. EACH OF YOU ARE SECRETLY AFRAID YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. BUT YOU ARE, TRUST ME, YOU ARE.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“The Outer Hornerites, deeply proud to be Outer Hornerites, staggered from wall to wall, overfilling their toluene receptacles and bellowing their national drinking song, “Large, Large, Large, Beloved Land (If Not the Best, Why So Very Dominant?).”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“In Far East Distant Outer Horner, a lush verdant zone where cows’ heads grew out of the earth shouting sarcastic things at anyone that passed, which, though lush and verdant, was unpopulated because the cows sarcasm was so withering.”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

“My people!” he shouted in the stentorian voice. “I shall speak now of us! Who are we? We are an articulate people, yet a people of few words. We feel deeply, yet refrain from embarrassing displays of emotions. Though firm, we are never too firm, though we love fun, we never have fun in a silly way that makes us appear ridiculous, unless that is out intent. Our national coloration, though varies, is consistent. Everything about us is as it should be, for example, we can be excessive, when excess is called for, and yet, even in our excess, we show good taste, although never is out taste so super-refined as to seem precious. Even the extent to which we are moderate is moderate, or even shockingly flamboyant, at which time our flamboyance is truly break taking in a really startling way, and when we decide to make mistakes, our mistakes are as big and grand and irrevocable as any nation’s colossal errors, and when we decide to admit our errors, we do so in a way that is truly moving in its extreme frankness! Am I making sense? Am I saying this well?”
― George Saunders, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil