Some gems from George Saunders

I will quote a passage or two from George Saunders's fiction to give an idea of how his mind works, here goes:

"Harris ain't dealing with his potty mouth," Ma said.
"She's only doing it because of work," Harris explained.
"Harris don't work," Ma said.
"Well, if I did work, it wouldn't be at a place that tells me how I can talk," Harris said. "It would be at a place that lets me talk how I like. A place that acceps me for who I am. That's the kind of place I'd be willing to work."
"There ain't many of that kind of place," Ma said.
"Places that let me talk how I want?" Harris said. "Or places that accept me for who I am?"
"Places you'd be willing to work," Ma said.
"How long's he staying?" Harris said.
"Long as he wants," Ma said.
"My house is your house," Harris said to me.
"It ain't your house," Ma said.

I love that he almost always keeps the verbs simple - Ma said, Harris said - which of course makes the one deviation, Harris explained, very funny. This great dialogue would not work well on a stage, at least I don't think it could, because it's so elliptical and flat - but works great in a story, jerking us a around, delineating character. The questions from Harris are of course a bit of a set-up, leading into Ma's great punch line, but Saunders brings us right along with the choppy flow of this dialogue - funny, inelegant, on point.

Or this:

Based on my experience of life, which I have not exactly hit out of the park, I tend to agree with that thing about, If it's not broke, don't fix it. And would go even further, to: Even if it is broke, leave it alone, you'll probably make it worse.

Could there be a better credo for a loser's life than this? And yet - it's kind of wise, too. Look how beautifully Saunders slips in that clause - which I have not exactly hit out of the park - a cliche, given a wry twist through the adv. exactly through the oddity of the image: how would one hit "life" out of the park, anyway?

I could pluck other examples randomly from almost any page in Tenth of December, a really fine collection of very odd, funny, and haunting stories.