Gregory Maguire Quotes

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

Is there a relative value of beauty? Is evanescence - fleetingness - a necessary element of the thing that most moves us? A shooting star dazzles more than the sun. A child captivates like an elf, but grows into grossness, an ogre, a harpy. A flower splays itself into color - the lilies of the field! - more treasured than any painting of a flower. But of all these things, women's grace, shooting stars, flowers, and paintings, only a painting endures. ~ Gregory Maguire

Lost is not an address, it's not permission to fail, it's not an excuse. ~ Gregory Maguire

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves as well. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen accidents, meetings and material assistance that no one could have dreamed would come their way. Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now. - Goethe, by attribution ~ Gregory Maguire

Liir held Chistery in his lap and sobbed into his scalp. Chistery said, "Well, we'll wail while woe'll wheel," and he cried along with Liir. ~ Gregory Maguire

Within a few moments the last of day became the first of night, a magic as peculiar and welcome as any other. ~ Gregory Maguire

Always the bridesmaid , never the bride."
Always the godfather, never the god". ~ Gregory Maguire

Gossip is instructive," said the Wizard. "It tells which way the wind is blowing. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Nothing in the Grimmerie on how to depose a tyrant - nothing useful ... Nothing there that described why men and women could turn out so horrible. Or so wonderful - if that ever happens anymore. ~ Gregory Maguire

Where shall I say you've gone?"
She threw an arm about airily. "Oh, way up high. Over the rainbow somewhere, I guess. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Now we'd help her if we could. We can't. So we're helping you. That's all that most of us who are not Tsars or witches can manage to do. ~ Gregory Maguire

There were a great many jokes about the disaster (house falling on and killing Wicked Witch of the East), naturally. "You can't hide from desinty, that house had her name on it" "That Nessarose, she was giving such a good speech about religious lessons, she really brought down the house!" "Everybody needs to grow up and leave home sometimes, but sometimes HOME DOESN'T LIKE IT." "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." "What's big, thick, makes the earth move, and wants to have its way with you?" "I don't know, but can you introduce me? ~ Gregory Maguire

And a puzzle is for the piecing together, especially for the young, who still believe it can be done. ~ Gregory Maguire

A capacity for interiority in the growing adult is threatened by the temptation to squander that capacity ruthlessly, to revel in hollowness. The syndrome especially plagues anyone who lives behind a mask ... A hundred ways to duck the question: how will I live with myself now that I know what I know? ~ Gregory Maguire

The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation. ~ Gregory Maguire

He lingered at the door, and said, 'The Lion wants courage, the Tin Man a heart, and the Scarecrow brains. Dorothy wants to go home. What do you want?' ...
She couldn't say forgiveness, not to Liir. She started to say 'a soldier,' to make fun of his mooning affections over the guys in uniform. But realizing even as she said it that he would be hurt, she caught herself halfway, and in the end what came out of her mouth surprised them both.
She said, 'A soul-'
He blinked at her. ~ Gregory Maguire

Begging your pardon, sir ... One population can't make peace with another by force. ~ Gregory Maguire

It's been a long rocky life, with plenty of possibility but too much human ugliness. ~ Gregory Maguire

There is a limit to the nonsense even a dream can attempt. ~ Gregory Maguire

The wall read:
ELPHIE LIVES
OZMA LIVES
THE WIZARD LIVES
and then
EVERYONE LIVES BUT US. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

Being born with a talent or an inclination for goodness is the aberration. ~ Gregory Maguire

We stand at a crossroads. Idolatry looms. Traditional values in jeopardy. Truth under siege and virtue abandoned. ~ Gregory Maguire

The storm dropped a house on her head. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

Also there was the thrill, basis indeterminable, which made Glinda shy, and caused her to rush her words, and to speak in a false high voice like an adolescent. How quickly you could be thrown back to the terrible uncertainty of your youth! For ~ Gregory Maguire

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

Don't take the advice of anyone you meet here. We're all mad. ~ Gregory Maguire

Everything changes you, and you change everything. ~ Gregory Maguire

Perhaps charity is the kind of beauty that we comprehend the best because we miss it the most. ~ Gregory Maguire

I was quite a looker in my time," she said. Was she reading his mind, or only being smart, to know she must be hideous?
"Oh, had they invented time as long ago as that? ~ Gregory Maguire

He was hungry without yet knowing that hunger could be slaked by food; he was lonely without yet knowing that loneliness could be slaked, too. ~ Gregory Maguire

After all is said and done," said the Dormouse, "there is nothing to be done. Or said. ~ Gregory Maguire

Not old enough to feel like an adult , really, but old enough to look like one, and to know the distinction between being carefree and careless. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

But, being unable to decide yes, she decided no. ~ Gregory Maguire

The years peeled slowly off, one by one, or perhaps dozens at a time. ~ Gregory Maguire

The world was floods above and fire below ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Your name is Rain, isn't it? Rain slips in the cracks and slides through the seams. You can do it? Can't you? ~ Gregory Maguire

Marmalade has to make its own way in life, like the rest of us, she thought. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

I may not know how to fly but I know how to read, and that's almost the same thing. ~ Gregory Maguire

If one could drown in the grass, thought Elphie, that might be the best way to die. ~ Gregory Maguire

It never is the who, is it? It's always the why. -Elphaba ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Always you were drawn to the composite creatures, the broken and reassembled, for that is what you are. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

Even God used silence as a strategy. ~ Gregory Maguire

I take responsibility only for the future, not the past. The past can't hurt you the way the future can. ~ Gregory Maguire

I have so few choices, really, if I can't get myself back home. Maybe that's what growing up means, in the end - you go out far enough in the direction of - somewhere - and you realize that you've neutered the capacity of the term home to mean anything. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Ah, the inner eye blinks, and the spirit trembles, at the dangerous cost of seeing one's self as one is. ~ Gregory Maguire

The more civilized we become, the more horrendous our entertainments. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

All these last months he had begun to talk about Sarima and the family as if they were ghosts, hiding just around the curve of the spiral staircase in the tower, suppressing giggles at this long, long game of hide-and-seek. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Don't be disgusting.
Don't dare me. I majored in disgusting at Gulag Community College. Lucrezia Borgia taught cooking, and Madame Defarge taught knitting. Emperor Nero taught violin and also led the cheerleading squad. I skipped all my classes and failed with distinction. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

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

One never knows 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? It is the very least question of definitions. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

Why were memories so independent? So jealous of corroborating detail? ~ Gregory Maguire

belongs. I can't afford so much as a footman to scour Saint Petersburg." "You must afford it. It is said, 'One ~ Gregory Maguire

I know this: The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness, she said. ~ Gregory Maguire

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

It's the work that's important, not the individual who does it. ~ Gregory Maguire

A story in a book has its own intentions, even if unknowable to the virgin reader, who just lollops along at her own pace regardless of the author's strategies, and gets where she will. After all, a book can be set aside for weeks, or for good. (Burned in the grate.) Alternatively, a story can be adored for centuries. But it cannot be derailed. A plot, whether abandoned by a reader or pursued rapturously, remains itself, and gets where it is headed even if nobody is looking. It is progressive and inevitable as the seasons. Winter still comes after autumn though you may have died over the summer. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

I know Oz, now," she said, and in the carving of the lintel she found that common ideogram, a Z circled with an O. "Usually letters don't hide inside each other," she told Glinda firmly. "No, that's true. In Oz, I suppose, something is always hiding ... ~ Gregory Maguire

What the hell are you doing up there?'
So he slipped, of course, because he was startled, and because fate, having been so kind to him as to award him this ecstasy, retributively was going to kill him now. He lost his footing and grabbed for the chimney but missed. Head over thighs he rolled out like a child's toy, smashed into the poking branches of the damn pear tree, which probably saved his life, breaking his fall. He landed with a thud on a bed of lettuces, and the wind was knocked out of him, mortifyingly so, through all available orifices.
Oh, brilliant,' said the voice. 'The trees are dropping their fruits early this year. ~ Gregory Maguire

The Ozmists around him went iridescent emerald, like light striking a thousand whirring beetles in flight, gold and emerald, emerald and gold, the colors of Lurlinemas, the colors of pine polen in champagne sunlight. ~ Gregory Maguire

By so giving up, of course, it renews itself- that is the secret ~ Gregory Maguire

Though who knows the architecture of the mind, and whether the arches that open upon discrete episodes are ordered in any way sequentialy? ~ Gregory Maguire

I'm just doing your tea, Mum," he said.
"Are you all imbecilic? Is that a requirement of enlisted men? It's Lady GLINDA!" She was losing it, big time. "Get me Murth! ~ Gregory Maguire

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

It isn't whether you do it well or ill, it's that you do it all. ~ Gregory Maguire

No, my girl, you know nothing of how we women are imprisoned in our lives, but there are ways to determine the sentence we must serve. ~ Gregory Maguire

Every child makes its peace with abandonment. That's called growing up. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Being normal isn't that miserable."
"Try it for a thousand years in a row, and you'll be grateful for a little zaniness. ~ Gregory Maguire

Not everyone can fly by bubble ! ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

Secrets are revealed as you are ready to understand them. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

So let my hands and my face make their way in this world, let my hungry eyes see, my tongue taste. ~ Gregory Maguire

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. ~ Gregory Maguire

As an old friend of mine once said when I brought him some interesting brownies, 'You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes,'" she replied. "Haven't you read your Maimonides? ~ Gregory Maguire

You lost your copper as well as your faith in wishes, and prayers. ~ Gregory Maguire

Well, I learned to cook. At my age," she told him. "What's next? Art therapy? Anyway, I've had quite a time of it this summer, and who knows what eases down on any road. Come, Rain. A quick goodbye, and off you go."
"Goodbye," said Rain to the Lion, and then to the woman.
"Not to them," said Glinda, "To me."
She turned eyes that were saucerly upon Glinda. "Mum? ~ Gregory Maguire

Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true ... we call it history. ~ Gregory Maguire

What a world I've come up through, said Liir to himself. Oh, what a world, what a world. ~ Gregory Maguire

Of course. You get everything from books. ~ Gregory Maguire

Age doesn't always constitute wisdom. And people grow up on different schedules, one from the next. ~ Gregory Maguire

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