Gregory Maguire Quotes

The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.

As long as people are going to call you lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention.

Remember to breathe. It is after all, the secret of life.

From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings.

Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true... we call it history.

Books fall open, you fall in. When you climb out again, you're a bit larger than you used to be.

If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.

I know you don't want to hear this but someone has to say it! You are out of control! I mean they're just shoes... let it go!

Growth and change were viewed as reactions to conditions met

Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping.

quoting reminds me there are other people in the world besides only me. And other thoughts besides mine, and other ways of thinking.

Always the bridesmaid , never the bride." Always the godfather, never the god".

The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.

Indeed, she often wondered if she were dead, or dying from the inside out, and that was the root of her calm, the reason she could surrender her character.

Just my luck, if I believed in luck. I only believe in the opposite of luck, whatever that is.

People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.

Before you save anyone else, you have to save yourself. otherwise, you'rejust a bundle of tics, a stringed puppet manipulated by the chance and the insensible wind.

Okay let's get this over with, no I'm not seasick, yes I've always been green, No I didn't eat grass as a child.

Of course. You get everything from books.

Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.

In summer moonlight, she was dangerously, inebriatingly magnified.

It isn’t hard to find evil in this world. Evil is always more easily imagined than good, somehow.

I had written childrens books for 14 years before I published Wicked. And none of them were poorly reviewed, and none of them sold enough for me to be able to buy a bed.

It's unbecoming," she agreed. "A perfect word for my new life. Unbecoming. I who have always been unbecoming am becoming un.

No, she wasn't losing language. She was choking on it.

Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.

It appears history is going to keep happening, despite our hopes for retirement.

The nature of the world is to be calm, and enhance and support life, and evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace.

The world unwraps itself to you, again and again as soon as you are ready to see it anew.

Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.

Elphaba looked like something between an animal and an Animal, like something more than life but not quite Life.

Just follow that one road the whole time!... I hope they don't get lost, I'm so bad at giving directions.

I hate to be obvious," added the Scarecrow, "but you'd have saved yourself a heap of trouble if you weren't too cheap to invest in a leash, Dorothy.

Yes, I'm nervous. You'll find in time most people are. They simply learn better how to disguise it, and sometimes, if they're wise, how to use their anxiety to serve the public good.

One plus one equals both.

There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.

One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?

The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness.

Behold the male beast roaring in the jungle for his mate," said Elphaba. "See how the female beast giggles behind a shrub while she organizes her face to say, Pardon dear, did you say something?

Approval is overrated...Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it. I don't care for approval, and I don't mind doing without.

It’s the place of the story, beginning here, in the meadow of late summer flowers, thriving before the Atlantic storms drive wet and winter upon them all.

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

...but the tale itself is a trickster and doesn't hesitate to lie. It is anachronistic with a vengeance. It emerges always and everywhere, overt or disguised, pureblood or hybrid, and healthy as sin.

They moved together, blue diamonds on a green field.

Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?

I wouldn't mind leaving myself behind if I could, but I don't know the way out.

I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose. I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered.

Immortality is a chancy thing; it cannot be promised or earned. Perhaps it cannot even be identified for what it is.

Little critters fried like fritters come out crunchy and divine.

My job is to protect you, Lady Glinda even if you are loosing your mind.