Quotes from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy

Gregory Maguire ·  295 pages

Rating: (6.5K votes)


“quoting reminds me there are other people in the world besides only me. And other thoughts besides mine, and other ways of thinking.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“So she listened hard. And she began to evolve, because stories work their magic that way. They build conviction and erode conviction in equal measure.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“Wishing is the beginning of imagination. They practice wishing when they are young things, and then -when they have grown - they have a developed imagination. Which can do some harm - greed, that kind of thing - but more often does them some good. They can imagine that things might be different. Might be other than they seem. Could be better.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“Old Flossie settle down on the other side of What-the-Dickens and dragged some handiwork out of a sack. She armed herself with two thorns shaped into knitting needles. A wodge of curlicued metallic scrubbing pad supplied the threat. 'I knit handcuffs as a hobby,' explained Old Flossie happily, and set to work. 'Idle hands get up to no good, so I like to be prepared in case I meet up with any idle hands.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“Skibbereen have a hard time at [math]; the best that the smartest of them can do with adding two plus two is guessing: three plus one. Correct, sort of, but not always useful.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy



“He had no other plans for the rest of his life. He followed her.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“Very few things in the world are certain, but morning is one of them.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“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 they've imagined us.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“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, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“So young, he knew nothing about aerodynamics, except how the heart could lift and lift.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy



“Even a clock has teeth and time has a bite all of its own.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“Oh, the accident necessary to fiction!”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


“You lie, cheat and steal and call it courtesy, cunning and thrift.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy


About the author

Gregory Maguire
Born place: in Albany, New York, The United States
Born date June 9, 1954
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Besides, who says I need to figure out love all at once? It's not a sudden thing. It's gradual, creeping in like a secret and then whispering hints over the cycle of time until you step back and see that all the hints lead to love.
Mother once said love is a choice, not a feeling. But don't feelings come from our choices? Or maybe our choices come from our feelings. I don't know.”
― Nadine Brandes, quote from A Time to Speak


“Call it cathartic. Call it therapy. Call it what you will. I tell you these things because I am trying to exorcise a few demons, and the fucking stair-master is broken. So”
― Edward Lorn, quote from Bay's End


“Don’t let others speak for you, or you will lose your voice forever.”
― S.M. Boyce, quote from Lichgates


“You’ll be with my husband, and I’ll be with so many sisters who see no visions. Who have no eyes to see, nor ears to hear—”
― Matthew Quick, quote from Love May Fail


“But the longer you hesitate, the hairier and scarier the fear becomes. The longer you hesitate, the more likely you are to turn around and crawl back under the covers. Screw that, Walker. It’s time to begin.”
― quote from Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life


Interesting books

Animal Farm
(2.1M)
Animal Farm
by George Orwell
Gone with the Wind
(0.9M)
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
The Fault in Our Stars
(2.7M)
The Fault in Our Sta...
by John Green
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(1.1M)
The Hitchhiker's Gui...
by Douglas Adams
The Giving Tree
(760.8K)
The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein
Wuthering Heights
(1.1M)
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë

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.