Elizabeth McCracken

I can't imagine not joking even at the worst of times. And for me, it's sort of automatic. ”

I feel like I don't understand time in novels, really. I bumble forward, is all. ”

Acknowledgment of grief - well, it makes feeling the grief easier, not harder. ”

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. ”

I used to be a writer with superstitions worthy of a professional baseball player: I needed a certain desk chair and a certain armchair and a certain desk arrangement, and I could only get really useful work done between 8 P.M. and 3 A.M. Then I started to move, and I couldn't bring my chairs with me. ”

I work in my office on the campus of the University of Texas. It's the sort of place described as 'book-lined', but it's recently tipped over into 'fire-hazard' territory. ”

I'm a higgledy-piggledy person in every way. On days that I work, I work for eight hours in a row, with my internet access entirely turned off, locked in my office. ”

I've always been absolutely appalling about the future, but I sort of think that was my childhood religion. We were future deniers. You did your best in the present, which was all around you. ”

I like seeing my physical progress through a volume, particularly if it's a big book. ”