Son of a Witch Quotes

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“It isn't whether you do it well or ill, it's that you do it all.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Wisdom is not the understanding of mystery. Wisdom is accepting that mystery is beyond understanding. That's what makes it mystery.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“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.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Begging your pardon, sir....One population can't make peace with another by force.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Everyone dies. It's a question of where and how, that's all.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“One plus one equals both.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Forget us, forget us all, it makes no difference now, but don't forget we loved it when we were alive.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“at least i'm talkng to myself. instead of giving myself the cold shoulder”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“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.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“How could anyone live without flying?”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“We are loping sequences of chemical conversions, acting ourselves converted. We are twists of genes acting ourselves twisted; we are wicks of burning neuroses acting ourselves wicked. And nothing to be done about it. And nothing to be done about it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“A capacity for inferiority in the growing adult is threatened by the temptation by squander that capacity ruthlessly, to revel in hallowness. The syndrom especially plaques anyone who lives behind a mask. An elephant in her disquise as a human princess, a scarecrow with painted features, a glittering tiara under which to glow and glide in anonymous glamour. A witch's hat, a wizards stole, a scholars gown, a soldiers dress sartorials. A hundred ways to duck the question: how will I live with myself now that I nkow what I know.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Glinda waved dismissively. Then she tucked her hand against her mouth and bit her knuckles. It was hard to tell if her pretty ways were studied or innate.
"Oh, oh," she managed, "I don't know that I'll see you again- and you remind me so of her.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Under every roof, a story, just as behind every brow, a history”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“I learned to fly on a broom," he said, rolling up his sleeves. "I can learn to milk a goat, I bet." Though flying on a broom proved to be the easier task, he found.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“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 consciousness, in the act of doing something they already knew how to do…”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“The wall read:
ELPHIE LIVES
OZMA LIVES
THE WIZARD LIVES
and then
EVERYONE LIVES BUT US.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“If the unlettered farmers of Munchkinland and the factory workers of Gillikin believe that their fate is being determined by how the Time Dragon dreams them up, they don't need to bother to take responsibility for their actions or for changing their class and station in life.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“The colossal might of wickedness, he thought: how we love to locate it massively elsewhere. But so much of it comes down to what each one of us does between breakfast and bedtime.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“It's the work that's important, not the individual who does it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“In the end, all disguises must drop.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Sometimes thought Liir-his first thought in weeks and weeks-sometimes I hate this marvelous land of ours. It's so much like home, and then it holds out on you.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“Liir didn’t know what to say to that; he wasn’t sure what husbandry was.

“Animal husbandry,” Trism explained, though in the noise of the bar, Liir couldn’t tell if he said Animal or animal, the sentient or the nonsentient creature.

“Training for military uses,” said Trism at last. “Are you slow, or are you falling in love with me?"
”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“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. Perhaps being jittery helps me pay closer attention.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch

“We are the next thing the Time Dragon is dreaming, and nothing to be done about it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Son of a Witch