Top quotes by Gregory Maguire

My first job was scooping ice cream at Friendly's in Albany, New York. I hated the work, most of my colleagues, and the uniform, and I more or less lost my taste for ice cream permanently. Votes: 14

The world rarely shrieks its meaning at you. It whispers, in private languages and obscure modalities, in arcane and quixotic imagery, through symbol systems in which every element has multiple meanings determined by juxtaposition. Votes: 14

In a sense, 'Out of Oz' is an examination of how individuals keep going, keep reinventing themselves and their lives, even after life-altering complications have afflicted them. Votes: 12

While I pride myself on trying to be creative in all areas of my life, I have occasionally gone overboard, like the time I decided to bring to a party a salad that I constructed, on a huge rattan platter, to look like a miniature scale model of the Gardens of Babylon. Votes: 12

The cave of Ozma has been discovered, and she is to come back and rule our Oz, and the idiotic Scarecrow can go stuff himself. Hah!Good one: a Scarecrow stuffing himself." Votes: 10

Elphaba looked like something between an animal and an Animal, like something more than life but not quite Life. Votes: 10

Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping. Votes: 9

I was just about to begin writing 'Mirror Mirror', within about a week of it, when September 11, 2001 happened. I found myself incapable of caring about fiction-making for a number of months. Votes: 8

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. Votes: 7

I write because I admire the act of rationalization, of seeking clarity in one's understanding of the complexities of life, and I'm bad at it. I'm slow. Writing, which is an arduous and slow process, proceeds at the same rate as my sloth-like mind. Votes: 6

The story of Mirror Mirror is in many ways a story about evolution. Its about the evolution of a child into an adult. Its about the evolution of those dwarves into something a little less rock-like, a little more humanoid. Its about the evolution of history, too, from the darkness of the Middle Ages into the light of the Age of Reason. Votes: 6

His avenging angel had come to call him home. A suicide was waiting for him back in his own world, and by now he ought to have learned enough to get through it successfully. Votes: 6

The melody faded like a rainbow after a storm, or like winds calming down at last; and what was left was calm, and possibility, and relief. Votes: 6

Growth and change were viewed as reactions to conditions met Votes: 6

Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny. Votes: 6

Science, my dears, is the systematic dissection of nature, to reduce it to working parts that more or less obey universal laws. Sorcery moves in the opposite direction. It doesn't rend, it repairs. It is synthesis rather than analysis. It builds anew rather than revealing the old. In the hands of someone truly skilled,...it is Art. Votes: 6

Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face. Votes: 6

The story of 'Mirror Mirror' is in many ways a story about evolution. It's about the evolution of a child into an adult. It's about the evolution of those dwarves into something a little less rock-like, a little more humanoid. It's about the evolution of history, too, from the darkness of the Middle Ages into the light of the Age of Reason. Votes: 5

Under every roof, a story, just as behind every brow, a history Votes: 5

Always the bridesmaid , never the bride." Always the godfather, never the god". Votes: 4

Little critters fried like fritters come out crunchy and divine. Votes: 4

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. Votes: 3

No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst - there is always choice. Votes: 3

When I began 'Wicked', I really thought of it entirely as a one-off, as the English say. There was no intention that there should ever be a follow up, because the subtitle was 'The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West'. She was dead and gone, as the book says, at the end. Votes: 2

Her sister's shoes. They sparkeled even in the darkening afternoon. They sparkeled like yellow diamonds, and embers of blood and thorny stars. Votes: 2

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. Votes: 2

We live in our tales of ourselves, she thought, and ignore as best we can the contradictions, and the lapses, and the abrasions of plot against our mortal souls Votes: 1

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." Votes: 1

Isn't that funny, that deity is passe but the attributes and implications of deity linger--" Votes: 1

Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling porcupine," she croonedLittle critters fried like fritters come out crunchy and divine." Votes: 1

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? Votes: 0

You're fun to look at," decided Galinda. Boq's face fell. "Fun?" he said. I'd give a lot to achieve fun," Elphaba said. "The best I usually hope for is stirring, and when people say that they're usually referring to digestion- Votes: 0

I am a forgettable leaf on a tree. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

...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. Votes: 0

I'm not a writer because I want to make money. I'm a writer because I'm a very slow thinker, but I do care about thinking, and the only way I know how to think with any kind of finesse is by telling stories. Votes: 0

She watched the sun bleed water out of the icicle. Warm and cold working together to make an icicle. Warm and cold anger working together to make a fury, a fury worthy enough to use as a weapon against the old things that still needed fighting. Votes: 0

It was mild monsters like these that made Jack the Ripper go after young women, she decided: who could tolerate yielding the world to someone who behaved as if she had given birth to the very world herself? Votes: 0

In summer moonlight, she was dangerously, inebriatingly magnified. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

No one survives in times of war unless they make war their home. How did I get so old and wise, but for welcoming war into my house and making friends with him? Better to befriend the enemy and hang on. Something worse might come along, which might be amusing or might not. Votes: 0

The future reshapes the memory of the past in the way it recalibrates significance; some episodes are advanced, others lose purchase. Votes: 0

Those times are over and gone, and good riddance to them, too. We were hopelessly high-spirited. Now we're the tick-waisted generation, dragging along our children behind us and carrying our parents on our backs. And we're in charge, while the figures who used to command our respect are wasting away. Votes: 0

I actually prefer female voices to listen to, mostly, but among the male singers whose voices I like are Jeff Buckley, Art Garfunkel, that sort of voice. Contemporary crooners rather than rockers. Votes: 0

No one is exempt from grief Votes: 0

Just my luck, if I believed in luck. I only believe in the opposite of luck, whatever that is. Votes: 0

Birds know themselves not to be at the center of anything, but at the margins of everything. The end of the map. We only live where someone's horizon sweeps someone else's. We are only noticed on the edge of things; but on the edge of things, we notice much. Votes: 0

But this was fancy; she was succumbing to fancy in a way she hadn't done before. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Come what may and hell to pay. Votes: 0

Cross a man and you struggle, one of you wins, you 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 vigilance in all matters of slight and offense Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Oh, mercy, there is nothing monstrously ugly about you. Ruth may be unpleasing, but you are merely plain. If anything, it's my beauty that's monstrous, for it sweeps away any other aspect of my character. Votes: 0

Remember to breathe. It is after all, the secret of life. Votes: 0

Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true... we call it history. Votes: 0

It appears history is going to keep happening, despite our hopes for retirement. Votes: 0

Your childhood," said Yackle coaxingly, as if she could smell his thoughts. As if she could sniff out those passages he hadn't chosen to retail at drink parties. Her words lulled him. The past, even a bitter past, is usually more pungent than the present, or at least better organized in the mind. Votes: 0

History plays for keeps; individuals play for time. Votes: 0

Perhaps family itself, like beauty, is temporary, and no discredit need attach to impermanence. Votes: 0

This is what fun is like," said Rain, almost to herself. Votes: 0

Isn't that funny, that deity is passe but the attributes and implications of deity linger-- Votes: 0

Perhaps, thought Nanny, little green Elphaba chose her own sex, and her own color, and to hell with her parents. Votes: 0

Of course. You get everything from books. Votes: 0

Children talk themselves out of their convictions as they grow up and become distracted by their huge selfish selves. All the literature is consistent on this point. Children begin to think they've imagined us. Votes: 0

Galinda didn't often stop to consider whether she believed in what she said or not; the whole point of conversations was flow. Votes: 0

He hadn't yet had enough experience with humans to know that the thing they hold dearest to their hearts, the last thing they relinquish when all else is fading, is the consoling belief in the inferiority of others. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

To grow a melody?" "You can't grow a melody on purpose, she said, and slyly added, you have to plant an accidental. Votes: 0

There was something about words and music together that allowed people to get nearest to honest truth about what was most difficult to say. Paradoxically, only through the essential instantaneity of music could you approach its eternal pertinence. Votes: 0

You leave home, I have learned, counting the trip day by day. If you ever get to return, you count the trip miracle by miracle. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I was just about to begin writing Mirror Mirror, within about a week of it, when September 11, 2001 happened. I found myself incapable of caring about fiction-making for a number of months. Votes: 0

I had written children's 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. Votes: 0

Starlight and comet tails burned the tips of endless grass below into hammered silver. Like thousands of tapers in the chapel, just blown out but still glowing. If one could drown in the grass...it might be the best way to die. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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! Votes: 0

The world unwraps itself to you, again and again as soon as you are ready to see it anew. Votes: 0

People always did like to talk, didn't they? That's why I call myself a witch now: the Wicked Witch of the West, if you want the full glory of it. As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. Votes: 0

My tastes in music tend to favor anything my kids don't like, out of natural antipathy amplified by a sort of malicious glee. Votes: 0

I never write a book unless I can't help it. Something has to bother me, like a mosquito, until I have to do something to relieve the itch. Votes: 0

Have you ever noticed when you look in a mirror, unless you're really depressed or something, the person in the mirror generally looks a little more competent, a little more curious, a little more intelligent than you actually feel yourself to be? They often look more interesting and more soulful. Votes: 0

I like to think I'm a pretty good-natured guy and pretty civil and probably not ever truly guilty in any serious way of any legal infractions. Votes: 0

...I dabble in causes and effects. Votes: 0

...looking at him makes her feel like laughing all over - as if she could laugh not just with her mouth but with her eyes, her heart, her very limbs. Votes: 0

...No opening sermons concerning children with humps and fins for limbs, who nonetheless, immortal souls all, deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happy Meals. Votes: 0

...perhaps charity is the kind of beauty that we comprehend the best because we miss it the most. Votes: 0

...the reasons just reassemble themselves in different patterns every time I think about it. Votes: 0

...What is the use of beauty? i have lived my life surrounded by painters, and still I do not know the answer. But i suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes or lives less miserable so that we might be more kind-well, then, lets have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories. Votes: 0

[Puggles] "What population signs on willingly for slavery?" "You mean other than wives?" [Glinda] Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

All our lives are activity without meaning; we burrow ratlike into life and we squirm ratlike through it and ratlike we are flung into our graves at the end. Now and then, why shouldn't we hear a voice of prophecy, Votes: 0

And a puzzle is for the piecing together, especially for the young, who still believe it can be done. Votes: 0

And it's a cold place the world, especially when warmed by arsen. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

And there the wicked witch stayed for a long long time.' Did she ever come out?' Not yet. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Are you an aberration to your species?' she cried. 'Cats don't look for approval! Votes: 0

Are you the dart?" he said. "Are you the knife? The fuse?" She said (though he wasn't convinced): "My deane, my poppet, I am too green to walk into a public place and do something bad... Votes: 0

As long as people are going to call you lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. Votes: 0

at least i'm talkng to myself. instead of giving myself the cold shoulder Votes: 0

Before catechisms can instill a proper humility, small children know the truth that their own existence has caused the world to bloom into being. Votes: 0

Begging your pardon, sir....One population can't make peace with another by force. Votes: 0

Books fall open, you fall in. When you climb out again, you're a bit larger than you used to be. Votes: 0

But his face had that hollow look, as if there was something gone... you know that look. The inward focus. Distantly attentive to the home you're missing, or the someone you're missing. That look that a bird has when it turns it dry reptilian eye on you. That look that doesn't see you because the mind is filled up with someone it would rather see. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Children are wickeder than adults, they have no sense of restraint. Votes: 0

Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil? Votes: 0

Don't wish,"said Rain, "don't start. Wishing only... Votes: 0

Doubt was much more energy efficient than conviction. Votes: 0

Elena had always felt like the center of her own world - who doesn't? The world arranged itself around her like petals around the stem of a flower. This way the meadows, that way the woodland. Over here, the baryn's estate, out there, the hills that hug the known world close and imply a world at beyond. She could never come up with the edge of a world, because it always kept going on beyond. She moved the center of the world as she walked. The world was balanced on her head. Votes: 0

Even God used silence as a strategy. Votes: 0

Everyone dies. It's a question of where and how, that's all. Votes: 0

Evil is an act, not an appetite. How many haven't wanted to slash the throat of some boor across the dining room table? Present company excepted of course. Everyone has the appetite. If you give in to it, it, that act is evil. The appetite is normal. Votes: 0

Forget us, forget us all, it makes no difference now, but don't forget we loved it when we were alive. Votes: 0

Forgive us our trespasses," says Margarethe, "and get out of our way. Votes: 0

From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings. Votes: 0

Have you ever noticed when you look in a mirror, unless youre really depressed or something, the person in the mirror generally looks a little more competent, a little more curious, a little more intelligent than you actually feel yourself to be? They often look more interesting and more soulful. Votes: 0

He had thought love as a policy made a lot of sense for those who could manage it, and anyone who could manage it belonged in religious life. The rest of us have to struggle with more ordinary love, the common or garden variety: love as a crippling condition. Love as a syndrome. Votes: 0

He knew about being alone. The weather was always cold there. Votes: 0

How deeply bound by cords of family anger we all are[...]None of us breaks free. Votes: 0

How poetic you are," she said. "I've a notion that poetry is the highest form of self-deception. Votes: 0

However in the world did her skin come green?" Nanny wondered, stupidly, for Melena blanched and Frex reddened, and the baby held her breath as if trying to turn blue to please them all. Nanny had to slap her to make her breath again. Votes: 0

I do love to sing. Had I a longer set of thigh bones and a sweeter voice, I should have loved to be a performer. Votes: 0

I don't like work like that. I am the silent partner. I work through events, I live on the sidelines, I dabble in causes and effects, I watch how the misbegotten creatures of this world live their lives. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I like classical music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and I adore Bach above all. Votes: 0

I like to think Im a pretty good-natured guy and pretty civil and probably not ever truly guilty in any serious way of any legal infractions. Votes: 0

I may not be sure if monsters exist, but I'd rather live my life in doubt than be persuaded by a real experience of one. Votes: 0

I may not know how to fly but I know how to read, and that's almost the same thing. Votes: 0

I mean, evil and boredom. Evil and ennui. Evil and the lack of stimulation. Evil and sluggish blood. Votes: 0

I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose. I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered. Votes: 0

I take responsibility only for the future, not the past. The past can't hurt you the way the future can. Votes: 0

I wouldn't mind leaving myself behind if I could, but I don't know the way out. Votes: 0

If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it. Votes: 0

If one could drown in the grass, thought Elphie, that might be the best way to die. Votes: 0

If you have an ancestor who is a Benedictine monk, we would rather not know it. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Immortality is a chancy thing; it cannot be promised or earned. Perhaps it cannot even be identified for what it is. Votes: 0

In a sense, Out of Oz is an examination of how individuals keep going, keep reinventing themselves and their lives, even after life-altering complications have afflicted them. Votes: 0

In the end, all disguises must drop. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It isn't hard to find evil in this world. Evil is always more easily imagined than good, somehow. Votes: 0

It isn't whether you do it well or ill, it's that you do it all. Votes: 0

It may merely be apocryphal that when the Wizard saw the glass bottle he gasped, and clutched his heart. The story is told in so many ways, depending on who is doing the telling, and what needs to be heard at the time. It is a matter of history, however, that shortly thereafter, the Wizard absconded from the Palace. He left in the way he had first arrived-- a hot-air balloon-- just a few hours before seditious ministers were to lead a Palace revolt and to hold an execution without trial. Votes: 0

It was deliciously pagan. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It's been a long rocky life, with plenty of possibility but too much human ugliness. Votes: 0

It's the endlessly thinking about yourself that causes such heart shame. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It's the work that's important, not the individual who does it. Votes: 0

It's unbecoming," she agreed. "A perfect word for my new life. Unbecoming. I who have always been unbecoming am becoming un. Votes: 0

Just follow that one road the whole time!... I hope they don't get lost, I'm so bad at giving directions.. Votes: 0

Light will blind us in time, but what we learn in the dark can see us through. Votes: 0

Maybe that's what growing up means, in the end - you go far enough in the direction of - somewhere - and you realise that you've neutered the capacity of the term home to mean anything. [...] We don't get an endless number of orbits away from the place where meaning first arises, that treasure-house of first experiences. What we learn, instead, is that our adventures secure us in our isolation. Experience revokes our licence to return to simpler times. Sooner or later, there's no place remotely like home. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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 Votes: 0

My job is to protect you, Lady Glinda even if you are loosing your mind. Votes: 0

No one is exempt from grief. Votes: 0

No wonder Wonderland isn't funny to read anymore: We live there full time. We need a break from it. Votes: 0

No," she cried, "no, no, I'm not a harem, I'm not a woman, I'm not a person, no. Votes: 0

Not an ugly color, Nanny thought. Just not a human color. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Notice, notice; let noticing take the place of screaming. Votes: 0

Oh now that's a blueprint for an impossibly rosy future Votes: 0

Oh, everything is gorgeous once it's gone. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Old Flossie settle down on the other side of What-the-Dickens and dragged some handiwork out of a sack. She armed herself with two thorns shaped into knitting needles. A wodge of curlicued metallic scrubbing pad supplied the threat. 'I knit handcuffs as a hobby,' explained Old Flossie happily, and set to work. 'Idle hands get up to no good, so I like to be prepared in case I meet up with any idle hands. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

One plus one equals both. Votes: 0

Only he with the hobbled foot fully knows the beauty of running. Only he with the severed ear can apprehend what the sweetest music must sound like. Our ailments complete us. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

quoting reminds me there are other people in the world besides only me. And other thoughts besides mine, and other ways of thinking. Votes: 0

She assumes that skill will guide her fingertips, that shapely lines will uncoil out of the pencil the moment she starts. Surely talent is a thing curled deep inside, just waiting to be exercised, and at the slightest invitation it will stretch, shake itself, make itself known? Talent, it seems, is not so insistent. Votes: 0

She dreamed of leaving, but she had too little exposure to the world to imagine where to go. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

She is no longer I, she is too long ago, she is only she... Votes: 0

She wasn't afraid of doing good or of resisting evil. She was merely afraid she might not be able to tell the difference. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Skibbereen have a hard time at [math]; the best that the smartest of them can do with adding two plus two is guessing: three plus one. Correct, sort of, but not always useful. Votes: 0

Small steps to the madhouse still get us there at last Votes: 0

So he stalked her again. Love makes hunters of us all. Votes: 0

So let my hands and my face make their way in this world, let my hungry eyes see, my tongue taste. Votes: 0

So she listened hard. And she began to evolve, because stories work their magic that way. They build conviction and erode conviction in equal measure. Votes: 0

Some said the original evil was the vacuum caused by the Fairy Queen Lurline leaving us alone here. When goodness removes itself, the space it occupies corrodes and becomes evil and maybe slpits apart and multiplies. So every evil thing is a sign of the absence of deity Votes: 0

Sorrow has a name, and its name is loneliness. Sorrow has a shape, and its shape is absence. Sorrow is a sickness like any other. Votes: 0

Speaking uses us up, speeds us up. Without prayer, that act of confession for merely existing, one might live forever and not know it. Votes: 0

Such silly things, children -- and so embarrassing -- because they keep changing themselves out of shame, out of a need to be loved or something. While animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

That's all I want- to do no harm. Votes: 0

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother? Votes: 0

That's what misbehavior is all about, just a little extra loving being asked for. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation. Votes: 0

The colossal might of wickedness: 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. Votes: 0

The devil is a very big angel, but a very little man. Votes: 0

The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say. Votes: 0

The further on we go, the more meaning there is, but the less articulable. You live your life and the older you get- the more specifically you harvest- the more precious becomes every ounce and spasm. Your life and times don't drain of meaning because they become more contradictory, ornamented by paradox, inexplicable. The less explicable, the more meaning. The less like a mathematics equation (a sum game); the more like music (significant secret). Votes: 0

The momentum of the mind can be vexingly, involuntarily capricious. Votes: 0

The moon rose, an opalescent goddess tipping light from her harsh maternal scimitar. Votes: 0

The more civilized we become, the more horrendous our entertainments. Votes: 0

The overdressed traveler betrays more interest in being seen than in seeing, while the true traveler knows that the novel world about her serves as the most appropriate accessory. Votes: 0

The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret. Votes: 0

The storm dropped a house on her head. Votes: 0

The sweet accident of coincidence is the best foundation on which to build. Votes: 0

The thing about a mirror is this: The one who stares into it is condemned to consider the world from her own perspective. Votes: 0

The truth isn't a thing of fact or reason. It is simply what everyone agrees on. Votes: 0

The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness. Votes: 0

The world was floods above and fire below Votes: 0

There may be no city in the clouds, but dreaming of it can enliven the spirit. Votes: 0

There was much to hate in this world and too much to love. Votes: 0

There were more ways to live than the ones given by one's superiors Votes: 0

There were people everywhere but no one was mine, and I was no one's. Votes: 0

They moved together, blue diamonds on a green field. Votes: 0

They'd never been lovers, of course, not in the physical sense. But they'd been lovers as most of us manage, loving through expressions and gestures and the palm set softly upon the bruise at the necessary moment. Lovers by inclination rather than by lust. Lovers, that is, by love. Votes: 0

This is why you shouldn't fall in love, it blinds you. Love is wicked distraction. Votes: 0

To consider what other people might say is hardly a good reason to take action or to defer it. You have your own life to live, Iris, and at its end, the only opinion that amounts to anything is that which God bestows Votes: 0

To look into the mirror is to see the future, in blood and rubies. Votes: 0

To read, even in the half-dark, is also to call the lost forward. Votes: 0

Was it an accident that I saw Fiyero, I wondered, looking at the manager with new eyes, or is it just that world unwraps itself to you again and again as soon as you are ready to see it anew? Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

We live in our tales of ourselves, she thought, and ignore as best we can the contradictions, and the lapses, and the abrasions of plot against our mortal souls... Votes: 0

We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out. Votes: 0

We start out in identical perfection: bright, reflective, full of sun. The accident of our lives bruises us into dirty individuality. We meet with grief. Our character dulls and tarnishes. We meet with guilt. We know, we know: the price of living is corruption. There isn't as much light as there once was. In the grave we lapse back into undifferentiated sameness Votes: 0

Well, the family always was bright, and brightness, as you know, decays brilliantly. Votes: 0

What goes unnamed remains hard to correct. Votes: 0

What had survived - maybe all that had survived of Trism - was Liir's sense of him. A catalog of impressions that arose from time to time, unbidden and often upsetting. From the sandy smell of his sandy hair to the locked grip of his muscles as they had wrestled in sensuous aggression - unwelcome nostalgia. Trism lived in Liir's heart like a full suit of clothes in a wardrobe, dress habillards maybe, hollow and real at once. The involuntary memory of the best of Trism's glinting virtues sometimes kicked up unquietable spasms of longing. Votes: 0

When I write a book, I write very cleanly from page one to the last page. I hardly ever write out of sequence. Votes: 0

When the dawn light is coursing through the slats in the shutters at last, making thin stripes on the floor, she, tossing, decides that for every human soul there must surely be a possible childhood worth living, but once it slips by, there isn't any reclaiming it or revising it. Votes: 0

When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis, those who are the most themselves are the victims. Votes: 0

Why lock yourself in your own cage when someone is handing you a key? Votes: 0

Wisdom is not the understanding of mystery. Wisdom is accepting that mystery is beyond understanding. That's what makes it mystery. Votes: 0

Wishing is the beginning of imagination. They practice wishing when they are young things, and then -when they have grown - they have a developed imagination. Which can do some harm - greed, that kind of thing - but more often does them some good. They can imagine that things might be different. Might be other than they seem. Could be better. Votes: 0

Wrong takes an awful long time to be proven, in my experience. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

You confuse not speaking with not listening. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

For fun? Maybe evil is an art form. Votes: 0

We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out. Once we really get the full measure of it--we're slow learners, we women--we dry up in disgust and sensibly halt production. Votes: 0

...and he kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, little by little by little. Votes: 0

... the decades looked on and didn't notice her passing. They stared from their fixed mounts across at each other and didn't see revolution striding between them, on her way to destiny. Votes: 0

Happy endings are still endings. Votes: 0

I learned failure early and mastered it. Votes: 0