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Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire Quotes

Novelist

Gregory Maguire is an American novelist known for his reinterpretation of classic fairy tales. His works are characterized by profound moral implications and rich imagination, which have won him a wide audience.

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All Ifs Elphaba Wicked World Knows Way Evil Witch Children Men People Said Might Home Humans Littles Mind Stories Thinking Gregory Maguire

Famous Gregory Maguire Quotes

“My job is to protect you, Lady Glinda even if you are loosing your mind.”

Ifs Mind Jobs Protect Protect You

Author:Gregory Maguire

“If you have an ancestor who is a Benedictine monk, we would rather not know it.”

Ifs Knows Ancestor Monk

Author:Gregory Maguire

“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.”

Ifs Way Hands Lasts Beautiful Understood Terror Boards Sunlight Liquid Shyness Glare Elphaba

Author:Gregory Maguire

“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?”

Ifs Doe Choices Struggle Devil Be Good Wicked Witch Right Choices

Book:Wicked

Source: Wicked

“If you're ever in doubt, throw a pepper in the air. If it fails to come down, you have gone mad, so don't trust in anything.”

Ifs Gone Doubt Failing Air Mad Don't Trust Peppers

Book:Mirror Mirror: A Novel

Source: Mirror Mirror: A Novel

“Starlight and comet tails burned the tips of endless grass below into hammered silver. Like thousands of tapers in the chapel, just blown out but still glowing. If one could drown in the grass...it might be the best way to die.”

Ifs Way Stills Might Dies Endless Best Way Grass Being The Best Silver Burned Tails Glowing Comets Chapel Starlight Hammered

Author:Gregory Maguire

“Not everyone is born a witch or a saint. Not everyone is born talented, or crooked, or blessed; some are born definite in no particular at all. We are a fountain of shimmering contradictions, most of us. Beautiful in the concept, if we're lucky, but frequently tedious or regrettable as we flesh ourselves out.”

Ifs Beautiful Born Particular Lucky Concepts Blessed Saint Flesh Contradiction Witch Definite Fountain Tedious Crooked

Author:Gregory Maguire

“If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”

Ifs World Humans Eye Ability Magic Skins Sight Moved Human Eyes

Author: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.”

Ifs World Trying Turns Baby Please Skins Breaths Blue Green Slap Nannies

Book:The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz

Source: The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz

“Just my luck, if I believed in luck. I only believe in the opposite of luck, whatever that is.”

Ifs Believe Opposites Luck

Book:A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in The Wicked Years

Source: A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in The Wicked Years

“...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.”

Ifs Feels Heart Eye Laughing Mouths Her Eyes Limbs

Author:Gregory Maguire

“...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.”

Ifs Knows Wells Kind Stills Ends Helping Stories Use Might Spirit Answers Mankind Wall Protect Painter Miserable Suspects Hanging On Porcelain

Author:Gregory Maguire

“I hate to be obvious," added the Scarecrow, "but you'd have saved yourself a heap of trouble if you weren't too cheap to invest in a leash, Dorothy.”

Ifs Hate Trouble I Hate Obvious Saved Leashes Scarecrow

Book:Son of a Witch: Volume Two in The Wicked Years

Source: Son of a Witch: Volume Two in The Wicked Years

“It was mild monsters like these that made Jack the Ripper go after young women, she decided: who could tolerate yielding the world to someone who behaved as if she had given birth to the very world herself?”

Ifs World Made Young Given Birth Decided Monsters Tolerate Young Women Jack The Ripper

Book:Lost: A Novel

Source: Lost: A Novel

“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.”

People Ifs Want Long Benefits Glory West Wicked Why Not Witch Conventions Lunatic Elphaba Wicked Witch Wicked Witch Of The West

Book:Wicked

Source: Wicked

“Evil is an act, not an appetite. How many haven't wanted to slash the throat of some boor across the dining room table? Present company excepted of course. Everyone has the appetite. If you give in to it, it, that act is evil. The appetite is normal.”

Ifs Giving Wanted Courses Evil Rooms Company Havens Normal Tables Throat Appetite Dining Dining Rooms

Author:Gregory Maguire

“If one could drown in the grass, thought Elphie, that might be the best way to die.”

Ifs Way Might Dies Best Way Grass Being The Best

Book:Wicked

Source: Wicked

“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.”

Ifs Reason Character Dying Roots Calm Surrender Resolve

Author: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.”

Ifs May Real Doubt Monsters Living My Life I May Not Be

Author:Gregory Maguire

“But his face had that hollow look, as if there was something gone... you know that look. The inward focus. Distantly attentive to the home you're missing, or the someone you're missing. That look that a bird has when it turns it dry reptilian eye on you. That look that doesn't see you because the mind is filled up with someone it would rather see.”

Ifs Knows Mind Looks Home Eye Faces Turns Gone Focus Missing Bird Filled Dry Inward Hollow Filled Up

Author: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.”

People Ifs Sometimes Use Wise Anxiety Nervous Disguise Public Good

Author:Gregory Maguire

“I wouldn't mind leaving myself behind if I could, but I don't know the way out.”

Ifs Knows Way Mind Behinds Leaving If I Could Elphaba

Book:The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz

Source: The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz

“Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?”

Ifs Doe Struggle Devil Be Good Elphaba

Book:Wicked

Source: Wicked

About the Author

Born: June 9, 1954
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 305

Related Topics

Ifs Elphaba Wicked World Knows Way Evil Witch Children Men People Said Might Home Humans Littles Mind Stories Thinking Gregory Maguire

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of OzRelated source material

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the WestRelated source material

WickedRelated source material

Out of OzRelated source material

Mirror Mirror: A NovelRelated source material

Son of a WitchRelated source material

A Lion Among MenRelated source material

Elphie: A Wicked ChildhoodRelated source material

HiddenseeRelated source material

A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in The Wicked YearsRelated source material

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