Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years, #1)

by Gregory Maguire

“No one is exempt from grief.”

“It’s the only time we have. We must live in the present. We are young and alive.”

“Behold the male beast roaring in the jungle for his mate,” said Elphaba.

“I don’t dress for your approval, boys,”

On the occasion when another café patron would come through, shaking water off an umbrella, Elphaba always recoiled, flinching if she was caught by even a scattering of drops.

“I’ve told you before, I don’t comprehend religion, although conviction is a concept I’m beginning to get. In any case, someone with a real religious conviction is, I propose, a religious convict, and deserves locking up.”

Glinda was changed.

It’s a systematic marginalizing of populations, Glinda, that’s what the Wizard’s all about.”

“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.”

“What is worse, Fiyero? Suppressing the idea of personhood or suppressing, through torture and incarceration and starvation, real living persons? Look: Would you worry about saving one precious sentimental portrait in a museum of fine arts when the city around you is on fire and real people are burning to death? Keep some proportion in all this!”

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? It is at the very least a question of definitions.”

“When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis,” she said, “those who are the most themselves are the victims.”

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

People who claim that they’re evil are usually no worse than the rest of us.” He sighed. “It’s people who claim that they’re good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”