My father was right: you could make anybody amazing just by insisting they were.
Elizabeth McCrackenAnd while I was not an admirer of people in the specific, I liked them in the abstract. It is only the execution of the idea that disappoints.
Elizabeth McCrackenYou can't out-travel sadness. I travel not to get away from my troubles but to see how they look in front of famous buildings
Elizabeth McCrackenDespite popular theories, I believe people fall in love based not on good looks or fate but on knowledge. Either they are amazed by something a beloved knows that they themselves do not know; or they discover a common rare knowledge; or they can supply knowledge to someone who's lacking. Hasn't everyone found a strange ignorance in someone beguiling? . . .Nowadays, trendy librarians, wanting to be important, say, Knowledge is power. I know better. Knowledge is love.
Elizabeth McCrackenFor some people, history is simply what your wife looks good standing in front of. Itโs whatโs cast in bronze, or framed in sepia tones, or acted out with wax dummies and period furniture. It takes place in glass bubbles filled with water and chunks of plastic snow; itโs stamped on souvenir pencils and summarized in reprint newspapers. History nowadays is recorded in memorabilia. If you canโt purchase a shopping bag that alludes to something, people wonโt believe it ever happened.
Elizabeth McCrackenAfter most deaths, I imagine, the awfulness lies in how everythingโs changedโฆ.thereโs a hole. Itโs person-shaped and it follows you everywhereโฆ. For us what was killing was how nothing had changed. Weโd been waiting to be transformed, and now here we were, back in our old life.
Elizabeth McCracken