Gregory Maguire: Trending quotes

“How poetic you are," she said. "I've a notion that poetry is the highest form of self-deception.”

“The truth isn't a thing of fact or reason. It is simply what everyone agrees on.”

“It's the only condition I know. Bitter Love, Loneliness, contempt for corruption, blind hope. It's where I live. A permanent state of bereavement. This is nothing new.”

“Happy endings are still endings.”

“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.”

“Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.”

“Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true… we call it history.”

“Books fall open, you fall in. When you climb out again, you're a bit larger than you used to be.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“So he stalked her again. Love makes hunters of us all.”

“There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.”

“You confuse not speaking with not listening.”

“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.”

“As long as people are going to call you lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention.”

“The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”

“The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.”

“Memory is a part of the present. It builds us up inside; it knits our bones to our muscles and keeps our hearts pumping. It is memory that reminds our bodies to work, and memory that reminds our spirits to work to: it keeps us who we are.~Candle”