Elizabeth McCracken

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.

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.

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.

You can still wear trousers and show off your ankles - which are a nice body part on everyone.

It's an ear job, not an eye job.

When I do my makeup, it kind of helps me get into the character that I'm trying to portray.