“ The idea of a library full of books, the books full of knowledge, fills me with fear and love and courage and endless wonder. Elizabeth McCracken
“ When I was in college, I wrote poetry very seriously, and then once I had started writing short stories, I didn't go back to poetry, partially because I felt like I understood how incredibly difficult… Elizabeth McCracken
“ For about half an hour in mid-1992, I knew as much as any layperson about the pleasures of remote access of other people's computers. Elizabeth McCracken
“ It's an amazing thing to watch a lizard fold a moth into its mouth, like a sword swallower who specialises in umbrellas. Elizabeth McCracken
“ I wanted to acknowledge that life goes on but that death goes on, too. A person who is dead is a long, long story. Elizabeth McCracken
“ Short fiction is like low relief. And if your story has no humor in it, then you're trying to look at something in the pitch dark. With the light of humor, it throws what you're writing into relief so… Elizabeth McCracken
“ There's a good chance that in 40 years, after the floods, people zipping by on scavenged jetpacks with their scavenged baseball caps on backwards, I will be in my rocking chair saying bitterly, 'I rem… Elizabeth McCracken
“ There are two MFA programs here at the University of Texas, and I read on the jury of both of them. And it's amazing to me how many really talented young writers seem to fear humor. Elizabeth McCracken
“ You write the way you think about the world. My motto in times of trouble - and I'm speaking of life, not writing - is 'no humor too black.' Elizabeth McCracken
“ Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving. Elizabeth McCracken
“ My memories are not books. They are only stories that I have been over so many times in my head that I don't know from one day to the next what's remembered and what's made up. Like when you memorize… Elizabeth McCracken
“ All I can say is, it's a sort of kinship, as though there is a family tree of grief. On this branch, the lost children, on this the suicided parents, here the beloved mentally ill siblings. When somet… Elizabeth McCracken
“ I’m so sorry,” he said, because after Pamela died, he promised himself that if anyone told him the smallest, saddest story, he would answer, I’m so sorry. Meaning, Yes, that happened. You couldn't bel… Elizabeth McCracken
“ Like all good mothers, she always knew the worst was going to happen and was disappointed and relieved when it finally did. Elizabeth McCracken
“ When I was a teenager in Boston, a man on the subway handed me a card printed with tiny pictures of hands spelling out the alphabet in sign language. I AM DEAF, said the card. You were supposed to giv… Elizabeth McCracken
“ Here's what I think: when you're born, you're assigned a brain like you're assigned a desk, a nice desk, with plenty of pigeonholes and drawers and secret compartments. At the start, it's empty, and t… Elizabeth McCracken
“ Perhaps it goes without saying that I believe in the geographic cure. Of course you can't out-travel sadness. You will find it has smuggled itself along in your suitcase. It coats the camera lens, it… Elizabeth McCracken
