“She is no longer I, she is too long ago, she is only she...”

“I was quite a looker in my time," she said. Was she reading his mind, or only being smart, to know she must be hideous?"Oh, had they invented time as long ago as that?”

“She dreamed of leaving, but she had too little exposure to the world to imagine where to go.”

“And there the wicked witch stayed for a long long time.'Did she ever come out?'Not yet.”

“Galinda didn't see the verdant world through the glass of the carriage; she saw her own reflection instead. She had the nearsightedness of youth. She reasoned that because she was beautiful she was significant, though what she signified, and to whom, was not clear yet...She was, after all, on her way to Shiz because she was smart. But there was more than one way to be smart.”

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

“She wasn't afraid of doing good or of resisting evil. She was merely afraid she might not be able to tell the difference.”