“It was funny about magic, how messy and imperfect it was. When people said something worked like magic they meant that it cost nothing and did exactly what you wanted it to. But there were lots of things magic couldn’t do. It couldn’t raise the dead. It couldn’t make you happy. He couldn’t make you good-looking. And even with the things it could do, it didn’t always do them right. And it always, always cost something.”
“If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so.”
Lev Grossman
“I got my heart's desire, and there my troubles began.”
Lev Grossman
“[F]or just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. I...”
Lev Grossman
“The truth doesn't always make a good story, does it?”
Lev Grossman
“It was so much easier to be angry. Being angry made him feel strong, even though-- and this contradiction did nothing to diminish his anger-- he was angry only because his position was so weak.”
Lev Grossman