Elizabeth Mccracken Quotes

Powerful Elizabeth Mccracken for Daily Growth

About Elizabeth Mccracken

Elizabeth McCracken is an acclaimed American novelist and short-story writer, renowned for her evocative storytelling and nuanced character development. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 17, 1964, she grew up in a family of educators with a deep appreciation for literature. Her mother, Doris McCracken, was an English teacher who nurtured her daughter's love for reading from an early age. McCracken attended Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned her MFA in 1987. Her debut short story collection, "The Huge Paper Valise," was published in 1991, followed by "Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry" in 1993, which won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for Best First Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2003, McCracken published her first novel, "The Giant's House," a poignant tale of a mute girl who forms a bond with an eccentric artist. The novel was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the New England Book Award for Fiction. In 2010, McCracken released "Nobody's Miracle Child," a powerful narrative about a woman who gives birth to an unwanted child with a rare genetic disorder. The novel explores themes of love, identity, and the complexities of family life, earning praise for its emotional depth and literary craftsmanship. McCracken has also published two collections of essays: "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination" (2003) and "Thunderstruck & Other Essays" (2011). Her work often reflects her interest in literature, art, and the human condition, making her a significant figure in contemporary American fiction. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she teaches creative writing at Harvard University.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It's difficult and it's meant to be difficult."

This quote suggests that life inherently presents challenges, and this is not just an unfortunate reality but a fundamental truth. The difficulties we face are not merely obstacles to overcome but an integral part of the human experience. By embracing this idea, we can better understand and navigate the complexities of life.

"The hardest part about any relationship is keeping the feeling from going away."

This quote by Elizabeth McCracken encapsulates the universal challenge in maintaining a healthy, fulfilling relationship. It suggests that as time passes, the intense, passionate feelings that often mark the beginning of a relationship can start to fade. The difficulty lies in sustaining those initial emotions without relying on them exclusively. This means continuously nurturing and reinforcing the connection through understanding, communication, mutual respect, and shared experiences. The goal is to replace fleeting passion with a deep, enduring love that can stand the test of time.

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just make it to dawn, you'll find a way; something will present itself, then another thing will happen and another and then, at last, you turn the corner and there's daylight."

The quote by Elizabeth McCracken signifies resilience in the face of adversity and the power of hope to guide us through challenging times. Hope, in this context, is depicted as a beacon that persists even when circumstances are unclear and daunting. It encourages individuals to push forward, believing that each passing moment will bring them closer to light and solutions, as if turning a corner into daylight. The quote suggests that hope is not only the spark for survival but also the catalyst for perseverance and growth in the human spirit.

"There is nothing that will solve all your problems but love. Not money, not success, not ambition, not faith, not work, not dreams, not art, not distraction, not food, not travel, not escape, not even hope. But love—that and only that can touch the deepest part of our being."

This quote by Elizabeth McCracken emphasizes the profound and transformative power of love in addressing human challenges. She suggests that while various things such as money, success, or distraction may offer temporary solutions to problems, only love has the capacity to penetrate deeply into our being, touching the core of who we are as individuals. Love, in this context, transcends the superficial and reaches the essence of our humanity, making it a potent force for personal growth, healing, and resilience. In essence, McCracken posits that love is not just an emotion but a universal panacea, capable of addressing the most complex issues that life presents us with.

"Everybody's life is a story. Welcome to yours."

This quote suggests that every person has their unique, personal narrative - a story - that unfolds throughout their lifetime. The implication is that each individual's experiences, struggles, triumphs, and growth contribute to the richness and complexity of their life. The author invites us to embrace this journey as our own, recognizing its inherent value and significance. In essence, it encourages empathy, understanding, and acceptance towards ourselves and others, acknowledging that every life has a unique story worthy of exploration and respect.

Humor reminds you, when you're flattened by sorrow, that you're still human.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Humor, Sorrow, Still, Flattened

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

Death, Goes, Life Goes On, Long Story

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

Amazing, Moth, Like, Fold

When you've lost a baby, everyone around you expects you to be fine once the new baby is born, as though that somehow takes away the pain of losing the first child. I needed to express how wrong that was.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Away, Express, Needed, New Baby

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Feet, Own, Touched, Revising

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Professional Baseball, Armchair

Ordinarily, I'd claim that I'd never write directly about my children, but the opening conversation of 'Peter Elroy' is a verbatim conversation that my children had that I just loved: morbid, funny, passionate, and obsessed with the truth of things - all natural qualities of children that I'd like my work to contain.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Passionate, About, Had, Directly

I have children, and this notion - that there might be a single book that introduces children to literature - terrifies me. But you could do worse than Mary Norton's 'The Borrowers.' I loved it as a kid, and my kids love it, too.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Love, Might, Could, Norton

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Access, Hours, Turned, Locked

The walls of the Franciscan Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary were ruined stucco chipping away from the brick underneath, with ghostly frescoes, concrete-filled niches, and one complete, vivid crucifix painted over the altar.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Church, Away, Painted, Brick

I have a memory of my fourth-grade self wanting to be the first woman president of the United States, but I think that has a lot more to do with my love of world records and reference books than a love of serving my country.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Love, Country, World Records, Woman President

When I first met my husband, he was sculpting Vilnius out of clay - a sort of Vilnius, anyhow: a map of an imaginary European city based on the Lithuanian capital - to illustrate his second novel.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Capital, Sculpting, Based, Map

An iron lung looks like an enormous metal coffin or a 19th-century rocket ship: only its occupant's head is left outside, a tight seal around the neck.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Rocket, Like, Metal, Lung

When it comes to other people's writing, my older influences are more powerful than more recent ones, partially because I'm now more worried that I'll suddenly accidentally steal something from another writer.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Other, Another, Steal, Accidentally

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 remember when 'all right' was two words.'

- Elizabeth McCracken

I Remember, Floods, Rocking, Caps

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

Young, Here, University, Young Writers

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Imagine, Times, Even, Joking

New Orleans is still the place where you find out that you have a doppelganger and feel lucky - but somehow unsurprised - to learn that his name is Mad Bottom.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Lucky, New, Still, New Orleans

When I tell people there are three stories in 'Thunderstruck' that were from the same wrecked novel, they want to guess what they are. Nobody has. There are no characters or timelines in common. They're structured very differently. A good novel wouldn't have pulled apart so easily.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Three, Tell, Very, Structured

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Mine, Astounded, While, Decidedly

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Forward, Understand, Like, Novels

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Good, Started, Stories, Novels

There was a time in my life when I wasn't sure I'd ever write a short story again because I had started writing novels, and I am fundamentally a lazy person, and the fact is that a novel is a lazy person's form, really. That is, you can amble; you can digress.

- Elizabeth McCracken

My Life, Lazy, Fact, Novels

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 that you can actually see it.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Fiction, Like, Your, Relief

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Think, Always, Which, Appalling

In general, I think people are worried about saying the wrong thing to any grieving person. On a very basic level, I think they're frightened of touching off tears or sorrow, as though someone tearing up at the mention of unhappy news would be the mentioner's fault.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Tears, I Think, Very, Frightened

Tweeting about objects means I don't need to bid on them, which is a blessing. Buying something is a way of saying, 'Look at this!' So is tweeting. So, I guess, is writing fiction.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Need, Which, Means, Blessing

At my first library job, I worked with a woman named Sheila Brownstein, who was The Reader's Advisor. She was a short, bosomy Englishwoman who accosted people at the shelves and asked if they wanted advice on what to read, and if the answer was yes, she asked what writers they already loved and then suggested somebody new.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Woman, Named, Reader, Shelves

Vilnius was once known as 'The Jerusalem of Lithuania' because of the number of prayer houses and scholars there; in the first half of the 20th century, it became a center of Yiddish-language scholarship.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Center, Became, Half, Scholars

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 it was.

- Elizabeth McCracken

College, Back, Very, Understood

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Moments, Making, Most, Jokes

In library science school, back in the years of glowing green non-graphical screens and protocols called Archie and Veronica, I wrote Internet documentation.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Green, Documentation, Wrote, Screens

I have been the person who tries to keep conversation light while talking to someone whose heart has been smashed.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Been, Tries, Smashed, Conversation

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Easier, Well, Makes, Grief

A comic strip that your parents read when they were young is a curious thing: it's an heirloom, and it's also intimate. You peer through windows and look at the things that made your elders laugh, and then you wonder whether the laugh really belongs to you.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Young, Through, Your, Elders

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Woman, Given, Recovering, Grieving

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

Black, Think, About, My Motto

I always want the last line to be really good, which may sound silly, but I want it to be a last pleasing line.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Always, Last, Which, Pleasing

You believe in God or statistics or the way your narrative differs from other people.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Believe, Other, Narrative, Differs

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Work, Over, Campus, Territory

The thing that most interests me about writing - there are lots of things, but the thing I can't do without - is the hit of happiness a lovely sentence delivers.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Lovely, Sentence, About, Interests

I am not a therapy person, but I understand what therapy does. It's a way of translating dark thoughts into something manageable.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Thoughts, Therapy, Translating

There were a lot of things I loved about working in a library, but mostly I miss the library patrons. I love books, but books are everywhere. Library patrons are as various and oddball and democratic as library books.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Love, About, Mostly, Oddball

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Big, Through, Particularly, Volume

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Die, Which, Protecting, Impossibility

Some graphic narrative art presses against the panel: you wrestle with it at the level of the paper.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Art, Some, Level, Paper

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

Access, Other, Half, Pleasures

In the last century, I earned my living as a librarian, and I loved it. I'd have to take some classes to get up to speed with 21st-century librarianship.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Living, Some, Last, Librarian

I sort of don't believe in closure. In the sense that it doesn't make me feel better to think that something is over.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Think, Feel, Over, Closure

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.

- Elizabeth McCracken

Real People, Very, Based, Property

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

My Life, About, Wrote, Sadness

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

- Elizabeth McCracken

Use, Read, Almost, Student

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