“Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven. So you may always belong there, bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it.”

“Maybe that's what growing up means, in the end - you go far enough in the direction of - somewhere - and you realise that you've neutered the capacity of the term home to mean anything. [...] We don't get an endless number of orbits away from the place where meaning first arises, that treasure-house of first experiences. What we learn, instead, is that our adventures secure us in our isolation. Experience revokes our licence to return to simpler times. Sooner or later, there's no place remotely like home.”

“Staring at a world too horrible to comprehend, believing -- by dint of ignorance and innocence -- that beneath this unbearable contract of guilt and blame there is always an older contract that may bind and release in a more salutary way.”

“The fairytale belongs to the poor. I know of no fairytale which upholds the tyrant or takes the part of the strong against the weak. A fascist fairytale is an absurdity.”

“And what new life can emerge from a book. Any book, maybe.”

“[after discussion about what evil is, a question asked to Elphaba on why she killed Madame Morrible]"Why did you do it?" asked the hostess with spirit.The Witch shrugged. "For fun? Maybe evil is an art form.”

“When goodness removes itself, the space it occupies corrodes and becomes evil, and maybe splits apart and multiplies.”