Begging your pardon, sir....One population can't make peace with another by force.

Wisdom is not the understanding of mystery. Wisdom is accepting that mystery is beyond understanding. That's what makes it mystery.

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

In summer moonlight, she was dangerously, inebriatingly magnified.

Behold the male beast roaring in the jungle for his mate," said Elphaba. "See how the female beast giggles behind a shrub while she organizes her face to say, Pardon dear, did you say something?

I never write a book unless I can't help it. Something has to bother me, like a mosquito, until I have to do something to relieve the itch.

Galinda didn't often stop to consider whether she believed in what she said or not; the whole point of conversations was flow.