We start out in identical perfection: bright, reflective, full of sun. The accident of our lives bruises us into dirty individuality. We meet with grief. Our character dulls and tarnishes. We meet with guilt. We know, we know: the price of living is corruption. There isn’t as much light as there once was. In the grave we lapse back into undifferentiated sameness

Gregory Maguire

Categorized in : Dirty Character Grief

Remember to breathe. It is after all, the secret of life.

Gregory Maguire

breathe secret remember

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

Gregory Maguire

writing book fall

Just my luck, if I believed in luck. I only believe in the opposite of luck, whatever that is.

Gregory Maguire

luck opposites believe

Growth and change were viewed as reactions to conditions met

Gregory Maguire

reactions mets growth

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

Gregory Maguire

why-not long people

Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping.

Gregory Maguire

wake-up insomnia sleep

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

Gregory Maguire

shadow light eye

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

Gregory Maguire

believe

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

Gregory Maguire

destiny stars remember

I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose. I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered.

Gregory Maguire

shoes soul waiting

Yes, I'm nervous. You'll find in time most people are. They simply learn better how to disguise it, and sometimes, if they're wise, how to use their anxiety to serve the public good.

Gregory Maguire

anxiety wise people

Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.

Gregory Maguire

guilt faces world

The nature of the world is to be calm, and enhance and support life, and evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace.

Gregory Maguire

support evil world

I know you don't want to hear this but someone has to say it! You are out of control! I mean they're just shoes... let it go!

Gregory Maguire

wicked shoes mean

One plus one equals both.

Gregory Maguire

plus life

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

Gregory Maguire

choke language losing

Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.

Gregory Maguire

accepting animal people

The world unwraps itself to you, again and again as soon as you are ready to see it anew.

Gregory Maguire

you-again ready world

The world rarely shrieks its meaning at you. It whispers, in private languages and obscure modalities, in arcane and quixotic imagery, through symbol systems in which every element has multiple meanings determined by juxtaposition.

Gregory Maguire

juxtaposition elements world

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

Gregory Maguire

too-much hate world