Gregory Maguire · 406 pages
Rating: (532.4K votes)
“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true... we call it history.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“One never learns 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?”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“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, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“So he stalked her again. Love makes hunters of us all.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“You confuse not speaking with not listening.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“She dropped her shyness like a nightgown, and in the liquid glare of sunlight on old boards she held up her hands-as if, in the terror of the upcoming skirmish, she had at last understood that she was beautiful. In her own way.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“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, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“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, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“I know you don't want to hear this but someone has to say it! You are out of control! I mean they're just shoes... let it go!”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst - there is always choice.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“There are two kinds of anger: hot and cold. Boys and girls experience both, but as they grow up the anger separates according to the sex. Boys need hot anger to survive. They need inclination to fight, the drive to sink the knife into the flesh, the energy and initiative of fury. It's a requirement of hunting, of defense, of pride. Maybe of sex too. And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the sidestepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down, ever, ever. It's the compensation for a more limited scope in the world. Cross a man and you struggle, one of you wins, you would adjust and go on -- or you lie there dead. Cross a woman and the universe is changed, once again, for cold anger requires an eternal vigilance in all matters of slight and offense.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“I never use the words HUMANIST or HUMANITARIAN, as it seems to me that to be human is to be capable of the most heinous crimes in nature.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose.
I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“That was such a wonderful time, even in its strangeness and sadness-and life isn't the same now. It's wonderful, but it isn't the same.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“And of the Witch? In the life of a Witch, there is no "after", in the "ever after" of a Witch there is no "happily"; in the story of a Witch, there is no afterword. Of that part that is beyond the life story, beyond the story of the life, there is-alas, or perhaps thank mercy-no telling. She was dead, dead, and gone, and all that was left of her was the carapace of her reputation for malice.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“In summer moonlight, she was dangerously, inebriatingly magnified. ”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“They moved together, blue diamonds on a green field.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“There were more ways to live than the ones given by one's superiors”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“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, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“It's unbecoming," she agreed. "A perfect word for my new life. Unbecoming. I who have always been unbecoming am becoming un.”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Always the bridesmaid , never the bride."
Always the godfather, never the god".”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“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, quote from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire
Born place: in Albany, New York, The United States
Born date June 9, 1954
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“There is something about talking in the night, with the shreds of sleep around your ears, with the silences between one remark and another, the town dark and dreaming beyond your own walls. It draws the truth out of you, straight from its little dark pool down there, where usually you guard it so careful, and wave your hands over it and hum and haw to protect people's feelings, to protect your own . . . You can bring out the jaggedest feelings - if you are my wife and know how to state them calm - into the night quiet. They will float there for consideration, harming no one.”
― Margo Lanagan, quote from Tender Morsels
“A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it… the tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts…. It is only when new cells are called into activity, when new stars become lords of the ascendant, that relief, repose, refreshment are afforded.”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory 1874-1932
“The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Unseen Academicals
“She’d already memorized the short Psalm and was hungry for more. Indeed, each word seemed woven into her soul the way the weaver wove his wares, taking the barest threads of her faith and making something beautiful and enduring as fine cloth deep inside her.”
― Laura Frantz, quote from Love's Reckoning
“Randal is a lad of about twenty and two, curly-haired and distressingly cherubic in appearance."
"Distressingly? Really, Northrup, I cannot see what could be distressing about a cherub."
His brows drew in a scowl. "They're baby angels, for God's sake." As if this explained all.”
― Kristen Callihan, quote from Moonglow
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