So You Want to Be a Wizard Quotes

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you've changed, by believing. Once you've changed, other things start to follow. Isn't that the way it works?”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“In Life’s name and for Life’s sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so—till Universe’s end. I will look always toward the Heart of Time, where all times are one, where all our sundered worlds lie whole, as they were meant to be.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Don't be afraid to make corrections," Picchu said. "Don't be afraid to lend a hand." She fell silent, seeming to think for a moment. "And don't look down.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Don't be afraid to make corrections! Whether the voice came from her memory or was a last whisper from the blinding new star far above, Nita never knew. But she knew what to do. While Kit was still on the first part of the name she pulled out her pen, her best pen that Fred had saved and changed. She clicked it open. The metal still tingled against her skin, the ink at the point still glittered oddly- the same glitter as the ink with which the bright Book was written. Nita bent quickly over the Book and with the pen, in lines of light, drew from the final circle an arrow pointing up-ward, the way out, the symbol that said change could happen- if, only if-”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“She tried to walk softly and wished the trees wouldn't stare at her so.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Dear Artificer, I’ve blown my quanta and gone to the Good Place!”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Fred started to follow, but Nita caught him in cupped hands, holding him back for a moment. "Fred! Did we do right?" Even here she couldn't keep the pain out of her question, the fear that she could have somehow have prevented his death. But Fred radiated a serene and wondering joy that took her breath and reassured her and filled her with wonder to match his, all at once. Go find out, he said.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“(True,) the white hole said. (My name is Khairelikoblepharehglukumeilichephreidosd'enagouni-) and at the same time he went flickering through a pattern of colors that was evidently the visual translation.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“magic does not live in the unwilling soul.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“The city breathing, burning, living the life thy had preserved. Ten million lives and more. If something should happen to all that life- how terrible! Nita gulped for control as she remembered Fred's word of just this morning, an eternity ago. And this was what being a wizard was about. Keeping terrible things from happening, even when it hurts. Not just power, or control of what ordinary people couldn't control, or delight in being able to make strange things happen. Those were the side effects- not the reason, the purpose.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“A warp," Nita whispered. "A tunnel through space-time. Are you a white hole?"
It stopped bobbing, stared at her as if she had said something derogatory. (Do I look like a hole?)”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“We do what we have to, to live. Sometimes that means breaking a rocks heart, or pushing roots down into ground that screams againest the intrusion. As for you-how else should our children climb to the star's but up our branches? We made our peace with that fact a long time ago, that we would be used and maybe forgotten. So be it. What you learn in your climbing will make all the life on this planet greater, more precious. And when it comes to that, who writes the things written in your body, your life? And who reads?-Our cases aren't that much different?”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Nita stood still, listening to Joanne's footsteps hurrying away, a little faster every second- and slowly began to realize that she'd gotten what she asked for too- the ability to break the cycle of anger and loneliness, not necessarily for others, but at least for herself. It wouldn't even take the Speech; plain words would do it, and the magic of reaching out. It would take a long time, much longer then something simple like breaking the walls of the worlds, and it would cost more effort than even reading the Book of Night with Moon. But it would be worth it- and eventually it would work. A spell always works. Nita went home.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you’ve changed, by believing. Once you’ve changed, other things start to follow.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“She strolled between shelves, looking at titles, smiling as she met old friends - books she had read three times or five times or a dozen. Just a title, or an author's name, would be enough to summon up happy images. Strange creatures like phoenixes and psammeads, moving under smokey London daylight of a hundred years before, in company with groups of bemused children; starships and new worlds and the limitless vistas of interstellar night, outer space challenged but never conquered; princesses in silver and golden dresses, princes and heroes carrying swords like sharpened lines of light, monsters rising out of weedy tarns, wild creatures that talked and tricked one another...”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“So You Want To Be A Wizard?”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“isn't he in the wrong?" (I don't know,) Fred said again. (How am I supposed to judge? But you're wizards, you should know how terrible a power belief is, especially in the wrong hands—and how do you tell which hands are wrong? Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you've changed, by believing. Once you've changed, other things start to follow. Isn't that the way it works?)”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“But how many other kinds of life are there that I could learn to feel? Who knows where thought is hiding? . . .”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“psammeads,”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“When friends couldn't be found, the books were always waiting with something new to tell. Life that was getting too much the same could be shaken up in a few minutes by the pictures in a book of some ancient temple newly discovered deep in a rain-forest, a fuzzy photo of Uranus with it's up-and-down rings, or a prismed picture taken through the faceted eye of a bee.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“When friends couldn't be found, the books were always waiting with something new to tell. Life that was getting too much the same could be shaken up in a few minutes by the pictures in a book of some ancient temple newly discovered deep in a rain-forest, a fuzzy photo of Uranus with it's up-and-down rings, or a prismed picture taken through the faceted eye of a bee.
-Nita Callahan-
-So You Want To Be A Wizard-”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“(Believe me, I’m not far.)”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you've changed, by believing. Once you've changed, other things start to follow. Isn't that the way it works?)”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“bemused”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you've changed, by believing. Once you've changed, other things start to follow. Isn't that how it works?”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“NO!" came his scream from beyond the wall of trees, hating, raging, desperate. But Nita felt no fear. It was as it had been in the beginning; all his no's had never been able to stand against life's I Am.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard