Gregory Maguire

"They'd never been lovers, of course, not in the physical sense. But they'd been lovers as most of us manage, loving through expressions and gestures and the palm set softly upon the bruise at the necessary moment. Lovers by inclination rather than by lust. Lovers, that is, by love."

"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."

"I care as much as I can, but I don’t spend energy caring about things I cannot resolve."

"Everyone has a right to love the land that gave them the things they need to live. It gives them beauty to look at, and food to eat, and neighbors to bicker with and then eventually to marry. But I think... That your own devotion to your familiar homeland should inspire you to allow other people to embrace their homelands as beautiful too."

"It isn't hard to find evil in this world. Evil is always more easily imagined than good, somehow."

"Of course. You get everything from books."

"This is what fun is like,' said Rain, almost to herself."