132 Quotes by Elizabeth McCracken

I own an e-reader, but I use it almost exclusively to read things that aren't books - student theses, unbound galleys.

I'm astounded by people who can listen to music when they write. I can only assume that they have multi-track brains, while mine is decidedly single.

In 'Property,' none of the characters are based on any real people, but the house is very much the house that I moved into in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

It's hard to know which made me more aware of the impossibility of protecting children - having a child die or having had two live.

Life likes jokes; life is constantly making jokes, even at the most inopportune moments.

Once I started writing novels, I understood how hard it was to write really good short stories.

Remember that a woman who has given birth to a dead child has given birth and is recovering physically, too. Don't be afraid of grieving parents.

Revising stuff lately, I was shocked to see how often my characters scratched their ankles, felt their feet, and touched their own ears.

Sadness was something I was thinking about in my life outside of writing, so it wormed itself into whatever I wrote.