Quotes by Gregory Maguire

“No one is exempt from grief.”

“Yes, ... Its called Son of a Witch.”

“I had really tried to do everything else but [revisit Oz]. Partly because I knew there would be some amongst us who would say, Oh, hes just trying to milk that cow. . . . . But in the end, I had an idea I couldnt get rid of. I couldnt get it out of my room.”

“Son of a Witch,”

“I thought if this catches on, that would be a sign from God I should move here,”

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

Approval is overrated...Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it. I dont care for approval, and I dont mind doing without.

The world was floods above and fire below

Staring at a world too horrible to comprehend, believing -- by dint of ignorance and innocence -- that beneath this unbearable contract of guilt and blame there is always an older contract that may bind and release in a more salutary way.

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.

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 theyve imagined us.

I care as much as I can, but I don’t spend energy caring about things I cannot resolve.

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.

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

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.

(from the short story The Honorary Shepherds)...you cant be kicked out of a faith. Faith starts inside your heart and ends up in eternity. All you can be kicked out of is a building, which is the bus stop of faith, sort of, and whats a building?

No, she wasnt losing language. She was choking on it.

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.

Of course. You get everything from books.

You could say that Elphaba brought us together, said Boq softly. Im closer to her and so Im 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 youre a little sweet. Youre a little sweet and youre a little charming and youre a little maddening and youre a little habit-forming.Boq held his breath.But youre little! she concluded. Youre a Munchkin, for gods sake!He kissed her, he kissed her, he kissed her, little by little by little.