Quotes from Gregory Maguire

Flying is desire fulfilled.

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:

Books with their power to anchor, to connect, to amuse...and to distract; to terrify...to unite adversaries in detente...A book is to look at and to offer a little rest for the mind and the body.

The madder the battle, the saner the peace.

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.

You lie, cheat and steal and call it courtesy, cunning and thrift.

You might forget a story, but you can never unhear a story. By that token, you might forget an event, but you can never go back to living as you did before its hidden influence was applied upon you.

The tedious never die; that's what makes them tedious.

Horrors," said Elphaba. It was her first word, and it was greeted with silence. Even the moon, a lambent bowl among the trees, seemed to pause.

there is no backstory in dream. Time slips all its handcuffs. So:

One never learns how the witch becomes wicked or if it was the right choice for he — is it ever the right choice?

I'm much larger than you are. So we can't share anything equally. Grow up a little and you'll see what I mean.

The person who would become a lifelong reader should stumble upon very rich stuff first, early, and often. It lived within, a most agreeable kind of haunting.

What's the different between a shooting star and a falling house? One which is propitious grants delicious wishes, the other which is vicious squishes witches.

It's true cats have nine lives, you know. But cats can't count. So I don't know where I am.

A burnt broom that has had enough, and refuses to burn further...

Well, the family always was bright, and brightness, as you know, decays brilliantly. Madness is the most shining way.

And yet what now is hidden in shadows below may become more welcome to you in the long run.

Very well. I can wait. May I give you a bit of advice?" "Please do." "Don't take the advice of anyone you meet here. We're all mad.

The old-fashioned stories have always been with us, Dirkie. The cross was planted in the mouth of antiquity so modern faith could begin; but the old beliefs mumble from the ground. Those who halt their incessant prayers can hear the old stories telling themselves out loud. Indeed, I think that is what you do—that is your genius.

Mind your way forward and find your way back

But those are legends and lore; they are faith and fictions. Not everyone is a character in a story.

Frex had a notion that she wasn't sorry to see him go off from time to time, so that she could be glad to see him come back.

She looked as if she'd swallowed an assortment of her own hangnails.