Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguireis an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and several dozen other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are inspired by classic children's stories; Wicked transforms the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation into the misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba Thropp. The blockbuster Broadway musical Wicked,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth9 June 1954
CityAlbany, NY
CountryUnited States of America
When I write a book, I write very cleanly from page one to the last page. I hardly ever write out of sequence.
What goes unnamed remains hard to correct.
While I pride myself on trying to be creative in all areas of my life, I have occasionally gone overboard, like the time I decided to bring to a party a salad that I constructed, on a huge rattan platter, to look like a miniature scale model of the Gardens of Babylon.
The story of Mirror Mirror is in many ways a story about evolution. Its about the evolution of a child into an adult. Its about the evolution of those dwarves into something a little less rock-like, a little more humanoid. Its about the evolution of history, too, from the darkness of the Middle Ages into the light of the Age of Reason.
Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?
I mean, evil and boredom. Evil and ennui. Evil and the lack of stimulation. Evil and sluggish blood.
In a sense, Out of Oz is an examination of how individuals keep going, keep reinventing themselves and their lives, even after life-altering complications have afflicted them.
I actually prefer female voices to listen to, mostly, but among the male singers whose voices I like are Jeff Buckley, Art Garfunkel, that sort of voice. Contemporary crooners rather than rockers.
I do love to sing. Had I a longer set of thigh bones and a sweeter voice, I should have loved to be a performer.
It appears history is going to keep happening, despite our hopes for retirement.
I was just about to begin writing Mirror Mirror, within about a week of it, when September 11, 2001 happened. I found myself incapable of caring about fiction-making for a number of months.
I like classical music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and I adore Bach above all.
This is why you shouldn't fall in love, it blinds you. Love is wicked distraction.
I never write a book unless I can't help it. Something has to bother me, like a mosquito, until I have to do something to relieve the itch.