Quotes by Gregory Maguire

“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?”

“Do good though, will you?" She blinked brightly at the green girl. "If not for your parents or your grandmother, then for me?”

“A notion of character, not so much discredited as simply forgotten, once held that people only came into themselves partway through their lives. They woke up, were they lucky enough to have conscio...”

“Isn't that funny, that deity is passe but the attributes and implications of deity linger--”

“I hate New Year's Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven't yet done what you wanted. And to pretend it doesn't matter.”

“The circularity of influence was like a trail of dominoes falling in four dimensions. Each time one slapped another and fell to the ground, from a different vantage point it appeared knocked uprigh...”

“Was it an accident... or is it just that 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.”

“Everyone has a right to love the land that gave them the things they need to live. It gives them beauty to look at, and food to eat, and neighbors to bicker with and then eventually to marry. But I...”

“Perhaps, thought Nanny, little green Elphaba chose her own sex, and her own color, and to hell with her parents.”

“We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out.”

“We only have babies when were young enough not to know how grim life turns out.”

“Night is brushed aside like so much cobweb. The day is wound up and begins even before the last haunted dreams, the last of the fog, those spectral and evanescent residues, have faded away.”

“Do you expect to learn anything at Shiz? he asked. I have already learned not to speak to strangers. Then I will introduce myself and we will be strangers no longer. I am Dillamond. I am disincline...”

“Are you an aberration to your species?' she cried. 'Cats don't look for approval!”

“You need my help? What for? Bread, cash, a fake identity to help you slip sideways through the cracks? Tell me what you need, tell me why I should help, and I'll see what I can do. In memory of Elp...”

“Thanks to our artists, we pretend well, living under canopies of painted clouds and painted gods, in halls of marble floors across which the sung Masses paint hope in deep impatsi of echo. We make ...”

“Her head had turned quickly away...Not to hide her tears but to soften the fact of their absence.”

“I may not be sure if monsters exist, but Id rather live my life in doubt than be persuaded by a real experience of one.”

“Don't wish,"said Rain, "don't start. Wishing only...”