Wicked - Gregory Maguire

"I just think, like our teachers here, that if ministers are effective, they're good at asking questions to get you to think. I don't think they're supposed to have the answers. Not necessarily."



           "Father always said that magic was the sleight of hand of the devil. He said pleasure faith was no more than an exercise to distract the masses from the true object of their devotion."
            "That's a unionist talking," said Galinda, not taking offense. "A sensible opinion, if what you're up against is charlatans or street performers. But sorcery doesn't have to be that. What about the common witches up in the Glikkus? They say that they magick the cows they've imported from Munchkinland so they don't go mooing over the edge of some precipice. Who could ever afford to put a fence on every ledge there? The magic is a local skill, a contribution to community well-being. It doesn't have to supplant religion."
          "It may not have to," said Nessarose [future Wicked Witch of the East], "but if it tends to, then have we a duty to be wary of it?"
          "Oh, wary, well, I'm wary of the water I drink, I might be poisoned," said Glinda [future Good Witch of the South]. "That doesn't mean I stop drinking water."
          "Well, I don't even think it's so big an issue," said Elphaba [future Wicked Witch of the West]. "I think sorcery is trivial. It's concerned with itself mostly, it doesn't lead outward."