Gregory Maguire Quotes

57 Sourced Quotes

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

Gregory Maguire
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-

Gregory Maguire
The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness.

Gregory Maguire
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.

Gregory Maguire
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.

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

Gregory Maguire
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

Gregory Maguire
Well, the family always was bright, and brightness, as you know, decays brilliantly.

Gregory Maguire
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.

Gregory Maguire
Just my luck, if I believed in luck. I only believe in the opposite of luck, whatever that is.

Gregory Maguire
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?

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

Gregory Maguire
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.

Gregory Maguire
Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.

Gregory Maguire
I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose. I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered.

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

Gregory Maguire
How deeply bound by cords of family anger we all are[...]None of us breaks free.

Gregory Maguire
No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst - there is always choice.

Gregory Maguire
No," she cried, "no, no, I'm not a harem, I'm not a woman, I'm not a person, no.

Gregory Maguire
That's what misbehavior is all about, just a little extra loving being asked for.

Gregory Maguire
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?

Gregory Maguire
The reasons just reassemble themselves in different patterns every time I think about it.

Gregory Maguire
The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.

Gregory Maguire
I wouldn't mind leaving myself behind if I could, but I don't know the way out.

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

Gregory Maguire