Quotes from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“In the lives of children, pumpkins turn into coaches, mice and rats turn into men. When we grow up, we realize it is far more common for men to turn into rats.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“It's the endlessly thinking about yourself that causes such heart shame.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Approval is overrated. Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“I take responsibility only for the future, not the past. The past can't hurt you the way the future can.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“The thing about a mirror is this: The one who stares into it is condemned to consider the world from her own perspective.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“And a puzzle is for the piecing together, especially for the young, who still believe it can be done.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Immortality is a chancy thing; it cannot be promised or earned. Perhaps it cannot even be identified for what it is.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“How shallow the words are, really - She is a witch. One might as well say, She is a mother, thinks Iris; that about covers the same terrain, doesn't it?”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“...What is the use of beauty? i have lived my life surrounded by painters, and still I do not know the answer. But i suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes or lives less miserable so that we might be more kind-well, then, lets have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Small steps to the madhouse still get us there at last”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“To consider what other people might say is hardly a good reason to take action or to defer it. You have your own life to live, Iris, and at its end, the only opinion that amounts to anything is that which God bestows”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“So let my hands and my face make their way in this world, let my hungry eyes see, my tongue taste.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“...looking at him makes her feel like laughing all over - as if she could laugh not just with her mouth but with her eyes, her heart, her very limbs.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“SELF-MOCKERY IS AN UGLIER THING THAN ANY HUMAN FACE, IRIS... YOU ARE SMART AND YOU ARE KIND. DON'T BETRAY THOSE IMPULSES IN YOURSELF. DON'T BELABOR THE LACK OF PHYSICAL BEAUTY, WHICH IN ANY CASE EVENTUALLY FLEES THOSE WHO HAVE IT AND MAKES THEM SAD.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“...perhaps charity is the kind of beauty that we comprehend the best because we miss it the most.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“It’s the place of the story, beginning here, in the meadow of late summer flowers, thriving before the Atlantic storms drive wet and winter upon them all.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Ah, the inner eye blinks, and the spirit trembles, at the dangerous cost of seeing one's self as one is.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“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, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Is this the main thing that painters of portraits care about? The person on the verge of becoming someone else?”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“She assumes that skill will guide her fingertips, that shapely lines will uncoil out of the pencil the moment she starts. Surely talent is a thing curled deep inside, just waiting to be exercised, and at the slightest invitation it will stretch, shake itself, make itself known?

Talent, it seems, is not so insistent.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“And it's a cold place the world, especially when warmed by arsen.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“You can endure any sort of prison if you can apprehend a window in the dark.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“What is strange is that we may remember what we have done, but not always why we did it.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“To consider what other people might say is hardly a good reason to take action or defer it.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Only he with the hobbled foot knows the beauty of running. Only he with the severed ear can appreciate what the sweetest music must sound like. Our ailments complete us. That we in our sinful souls can ever imagine charity- 'She can't go on for a moment. 'We may not always be able to practice charity, but that in this world we can even imagine it at all! That act of daring requires the greatest challenge,”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“When the dawn light is coursing through the slats in the shutters at last, making thin stripes on the floor, she, tossing, decides that for every human soul there must surely be a possible childhood worth living, but once it slips by, there isn’t any reclaiming it or revising it.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“YOU HAVE YOUR OWN LIFE TO LIVE, IRIS, AND AT ITS END, THE ONLY OPINION THAT AMOUNTS TO ANYTHING IS THAT WHICH GOD BESTOWS.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Forgive us our trespasses,” says Margarethe, “and get out of our way.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

About the author

Popular quotes

“I feel like someone is pressing me into a mold that does not fit my body, forcing me intothe wrong shape.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from Free Four: Tobias Tells the Divergent Knife-Throwing Scene

“She wouldn't come back. She hated me. She hated Nan. She hated my mom. She hated her father. She wouldn't come back here... but God, I wanted her to.”
― Abbi Glines, quote from Never Too Far

“Beauty knows no time', he said softly, rising, and kissing her hand.”
― Jude Deveraux, quote from A Knight in Shining Armor

“(Not every doctor can look into a mouse's ear without laughing)”
― E.B. White, quote from Stuart Little

“I was blinded by stupidity for a brief moment in our life, for a flicker in the eternity in which you and I live, and I stumbled.”
― Paullina Simons, quote from The Summer Garden

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.