He had thought love as a policy made a lot of sense for those who could manage it, and anyone who could manage it belonged in religious life. The rest of us have to struggle with more ordinary love, the common or garden variety: love as a crippling condition. Love as a syndrome.

I do love to sing. Had I a longer set of thigh bones and a sweeter voice, I should have loved to be a performer.

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

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?

There were more ways to live than the ones given by one's superiors

And a puzzle is for the piecing together, especially for the young, who still believe it can be done.

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