Quotes from Gregory Maguire

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

Evil is moral at its heart—the selection of vice over virtue; you can pretend not to know, you can rationalize, but you know it in your conscience

Lot of talky-talk in there, they had to open the windows to let the words out

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.

Animals in pens have lots of time to develop theories, said the Cow, I've heard more than one clever creature draw a connection between the rise of tiktokism and the erosion of traditional Animal labour. We weren't beasts of burden, but we were good reliable labourers. If we were made redundant in the workforce, it was only a matter of time before we'd be socially redundant too.

But then, no one ever experienced anyone else's life. That was the curse of individuality, and maybe the safety of it, too. The privacy of shame, of regret.

someone with a real religious conviction is, I propose, a religious convict, and deserves locking up.

He spoke in one of the American accents; Lydia couldn't distinguish among them. To her they all sounded dry and tinny. Almost quack-like.

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.

I rarely trust myself to make statements about truth.

The fatal day rarely announces itself, but comes disguised as midsummer. Our private lives are like a colony of worlds expanding, contracting, breathing universal air into separate knowledges. Or like several packs of cards shuffled together by an expert anonymous hand, and dealt out in a random, amused or even hostile way.

She reasoned that because she was beautiful she was significant, though what she signified, and to whom, was not clear to her yet.

I'm no pawn," said Glinda. "I take all the credit in the world for my own foolishness. Good gracious, dear, all of life is a spell. You know that. But you do have some choice.

I would leave me were I him. I would leave myself if I could.

In my raveling thoughts I flew away, as if my spirit were nestled in the breast feathers of some passing hornbill or waxwing.

who knows what we want? We're all mysteries, even to ourselves.

The master is bringing Darwin through to examine lower life-forms, Rhoda. Straighten your spine or you'll be mistook for a mollusk.

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.

She was a sour-sass soul with a rubbery face.

Everything changes you, and you change everything.

Day after day in the season of disaster, it can be hard to recognize a chance in fortune when it comes.

We all have our shortcomings, it seems, though some are less visible than others.

La gente que dice ser malvada no suele ser peor que el resto de nosotros -suspiró-. Pero la gente que dice ser buena, o mejor que los demás en algún aspecto, esa gente sí que es peligrosa.

The story is told in so many ways, depending on who is doing the telling, and what needs to be heard at the time.