I’d never gone to see Wicked the Musical because I wanted to read the book first. But I never read the book because I didn’t want to taint my happy childhood memories of The Wizard of Oz. However, the second I saw the trailer for Wicked the movie, I knew it was time to break down and read the book. Especially since it was available on Kindle Unlimited.
Ooof. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was not an easy book to get through.
I appreciated the author’s command of the language. (Wicked for sure set a new “most use in one book” dictionary lookup record on my Kindle. )
But my goodness, way too much description. For my liking, at any rate. Then again, I’ve been reading tons of suspense thrillers with fast-moving action. It was a matter of going from one extreme to the other.
Still, it boggles my mind that anyone read Wicked the book and thought, “I think this would make a great musical!” But someone did. Wow.
And apparently what they did with it is wow. I’ve never heard anyone describe the musical like how I might describe the book. (Drawn out, is this ever going to end, etc.)
Even though I found it a tedious read, the plot was rather clever —with an almost prophetic nature. Or maybe it had drawn from events back when it was released. Either way, so many of the book’s political aspects felt uncomfortably similar to current ones, which is why it felt a bit prognostic.
Not that the quotes I liked best have political slants, but they resonated in one way or another, for different reason. Mostly because they’re a beautiful combo of humor and wisdom. Here are my faves.
Did these Wicked book quotes make it into the movie?
“In any case, someone with a real religious conviction is, I propose, a religious convict, and deserves locking up.” ~Elphaba
“The wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness.” ~Elphaba
“I’m a forgettable leaf on a tree.” ~Elphaba
“Such silly things, children–and so embarrassing—because they keep changing themselves out of shame, out of a need to be loved or something. While animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.” ~Elphaba
“People who claim that they’re evil are usually no worse than the rest of us.” He sighed. “It’s people who claim that they’re good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.” ~Boq
Your Turn
Whether from Wicked or otherwise, have there been any quotes from books you hoped would make it onto the big screen in the movie version?