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.

Elphaba looked like something between an animal and an Animal, like something more than life but not quite Life.

We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out.

Don't wish,"said Rain, "don't start. Wishing only...

I learned failure early and mastered it.

Oh now that's a blueprint for an impossibly rosy future

No, she wasn't losing language. She was choking on it.