Gregory Maguire > Quotes

“People who claim 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. ”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Happy endings are still endings.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true... we call it history.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“In the lives of children, pumpkins turn into coaches, mice and rats turn into men. When we grow up, we realize it is far more common for men to turn into rats.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the side stepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down,ever, ever. ”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try I'll never know.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“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?”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

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

“She dropped her shyness like a nightgown, and in the liquid glare of sunlight on old boards she held up her hands-as if, in the terror of the upcoming skirmish, she had at last understood that she was beautiful. In her own way.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”
― Gregory Maguire, Mirror Mirror

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

“So he stalked her again. Love makes hunters of us all.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Those who don't try never look foolish.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“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!”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Not everyone is born a witch or a saint. Not everyone is born talented, or crooked, or blessed; some are born definite in no particular at all. We are a fountain of shimmering contradictions, most of us. Beautiful in the concept, if we're lucky, but frequently tedious or regrettable as we flesh ourselves out.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven. So you may always belong there, bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it.”
― Gregory Maguire

“Memory is a part of the present. It builds us up inside; it knits our bones to our muscles and keeps our hearts pumping. It is memory that reminds our bodies to work, and memory that reminds our spirits to work to: it keeps us who we are.~Candle”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Cause getting your dreams
It's strange, but it seems
A little -- well -- complicated
There's a kind of a sort of : cost
There's a couple of things get : lost
There are bridges you cross
You didn't know you crossed
Until you've crossed.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“You confuse not speaking with not listening.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“That was such a wonderful time, even in its strangeness and sadness-and life isn't the same now. It's wonderful, but it isn't the same.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“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.”
― Gregory Maguire

“He lingered at the door, and said, 'The Lion wants courage, the Tin Man a heart, and the Scarecrow brains. Dorothy wants to go home. What do you want?'...
She couldn't say forgiveness, not to Liir. She started to say 'a soldier,' to make fun of his mooning affections over the guys in uniform. But realizing even as she said it that he would be hurt, she caught herself halfway, and in the end what came out of her mouth surprised them both.
She said, 'A soul-'
He blinked at her.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“It's the only condition I know. Bitter Love, Loneliness, contempt for corruption, blind hope. It's where I live. A permanent state of bereavement. This is nothing new.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“In summer moonlight, she was dangerously, inebriatingly magnified. ”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose.
I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The answer of course, is that the clock isn't meant to measure earthly time, but the time of the soul. Redemption and condemnation time. For the soul, each instant is always a minute short of judgment. ”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“They moved together, blue diamonds on a green field.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“A male usually had made up his mind before you began to talk to him -so why bother?- but a female, because her mind was more supple, was always prepared to become more disappointed in you than she had yet suspected possible.”
― Gregory Maguire, A Lion Among Men

“If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“And of the Witch? In the life of a Witch, there is no "after", in the "ever after" of a Witch there is no "happily"; in the story of a Witch, there is no afterword. Of that part that is beyond the life story, beyond the story of the life, there is-alas, or perhaps thank mercy-no telling. She was dead, dead, and gone, and all that was left of her was the carapace of her reputation for malice.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“There ae two kinds of anger: hot and cold. Boys and girls expeience both, but as they grow up the anger seprates acording to the sex. Boys need hot anger to surive. they need inclination to fight, the drive to sink the knife into the flesh, the enery and initiative of furry. It's a reguirement of hunting, of defence, of pride. mabey of sex too. And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgivness, the sidesteppinf of compromise. They need to know when the say somthing that they will never back down, ever, ever. It's the compensation for a more limited scope in the world. Cross a man and you struggle, one of you wins, you would adjust and go on -- or you lie there dead. Cross a woman and the universe is changed, once again, for cold anger requires an eternal vigilence in all matters of slight and offene”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“I never use the words HUMANIST or HUMANITARIAN, as it seems to me that to be human is to be capable of the most heinous crimes in nature.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“It's the endlessly thinking about yourself that causes such heart shame.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“There were more ways to live than the ones given by one's superiors”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“You could say that Elphaba brought us together,' said Boq softly. 'I'm closer to her and so I'm closer to you.'

Galinda seemed to give up. She leaned her head back on the velvet cushions of the swing and said, 'Boq, you know despite myself I think you're a little sweet. You're a little sweet and you're a little charming and you're a little maddening and you're a little habit-forming.'

Boq held his breath.

But you're little!' she concluded. 'You're a Munchkin, for god's sake!'

He kissed her, he kissed her, he kissed her, little by little by little.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Always the bridesmaid , never the bride."
Always the godfather, never the god".”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“She's sent the crows out to blind the guests coming for dinner!"

What?"

She's BLINDING THE GUESTS COMING FOR DINNER!"

Well, that's one way to avoid having to dust, I suppose.”
― Gregory Maguire

“If you're ever in doubt, throw a pepper in the air. If it fails to come down, you have gone mad, so don't trust in anything.”
― Gregory Maguire, Mirror Mirror

“But she woke up just then, and in the moonlight covered herself with a blanket. She smiled at him drowsily and called him "Yero, my hero," and that melted his heart.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“A man is called a traitor, or liberator. A rich man is a theif or philanthropist. Is one a crusader or ruthless invader? It's all in which label is able to persist.”
― Gregory Maguire

“Galinda didn't often stop to consider whether she believed in what she said or not; the whole point of conversations was flow.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Yet who can say how our souls have been stamped by witnessing such a cruel drama? All souls are hostages to their human envelopes, but souls must decay and suffer at such indignity, don't you agree? ”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The future reshapes the memory of the past in the way it recalibrates significance; some episodes are advanced, others lose purchase.”
― Gregory Maguire, A Lion Among Men

“Even God used silence as a strategy.”
― Gregory Maguire, Mirror Mirror

“I learned failure early and mastered it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch