“Practical Magic” was first released as a novel by author Alice Hoffman in 1995, and then later adapted into a movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in 1998. Both the book and the movie have become beloved for their heartfelt exploration of sisterhood, family, and love. To celebrate the enduring popularity of “Practical Magic,” here are 57 quotes from both the book and the movie.
Practical Magic Quotes (The Movie 1998)
- “My blood. Your blood. Our blood.” ‒ Gillian Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Gillian: I love you. Sally: I love you too, Gilly-Bean.” ‒ ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Hands up. ladies. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” ‒ Aunt Frances, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Young Sally Owens: Mommy died of a broken heart, didn’t she? Aunt Frances: Yes, my darling girl, she did.”
- “Sometimes we just stay up all night worshipping each other like bats.” ‒ Gillian Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- I think if you lifted my heart to your ear, you could probably hear the ocean. – Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Young Sally: I hope I never fall in love. I hope I never fall in love. Young Gillian: I can’t wait to fall in love.”
- “The guy I dreamed of doesn’t exist. And if he doesn’t exist, I’ll never die of a broken heart.” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Oh, come on, Sal, What’s enough? I hate it here. I want to go where no one’s even heard of us.” ‒ Gillian Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Curses only have power when you believe in them. And I don’t. You know what? I wished for you too.” ‒ Gary Hallet, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “For more than 200 years we Owens women have been blamed by everything that’s ever gone wrong in this town.” ‒ Aunt Frances, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “I’m lying in the sun. I’m hanging by the pool. I’ve got a million friends. You might say that life is perfect” ‒ Gillian Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Your mother knew … She knew that when you hear the sound of the deathwatch beetle the man you love is doomed to die.” ‒ Aunt Frances, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Gary Hallet: Miss Owens, are you hiding James Angelov? Sally: Not in this house. Gary Hallet: Did you or your sister **** James Angelov? Sally: Oh, Yeah. Couple of times.”
- “Gary: So what kind of a craft do you do? Sally: I manufacture bath oils and soaps and hand lotions and shampoo. And the aunts .. they like to meddle in people’s love lives.”
- “He can flip pancakes in the air. He’ll be marvelously kind. And his favorite shape will be a star. And he’ll have one green eye and one blue.” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Aunt Frances: A lesson they must learn on their own.Aunt Jet: What about the little ones? Aunt Frances: Not to worry, Jetty. A good piece of Maria’s hanging rope will protect them.”
- “Sally: All I want is a normal life. Aunt Frances: My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being ‘normal’ is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage.”
- “Aunt Jet: No, dear. You don’t do that! Aunt Frances: You don’t do that. Aunt Frances: Even if we did bring him back, it wouldn’t be Michael. It’d be something else. Something dark and unnatural.”
- “Sometimes I feel like there’s a hole inside me an emptiness that, at times seems to burn. I think if you lifted my heart to your ear, probably you could hear the ocean.” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “[after Michael’s death; brings the spell book out] You brought him into my life and now I want you to bring him back. Bring him back! I have never asked you for anything…” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “There’re some things I know for certain. Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Plant lavender for luck. And fall in love whenever you can.” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Jimmy: (Singing) If I made you feel second best, I’m so sorry, I was blind. you were always on my mind… Gillian: Jimmy, please, baby. Come on, baby, I love you. Jimmy: I’m sorry, my love. I want to be with you forever.”
- “Of course you’re going to see me again. We’ll grow old together. It’s going to be you and me living in a big house… these two old biddies with all these cats. I bet we even die on the same day.” ‒ Gillian Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “I have this dream of being whole. Of not going to sleep each night, wanting. But still, sometimes when the wind is warm or the crickets sing I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Dear Gillian, Today is our third anniversary and all I have to show for it are two beautiful little girls and a husband… No more stones being thrown, no taunts cried out. Everything is just so blissfully normal. Life is perfect.” ‒ Sally Owens, ‘Practical Magic’.
- “Gillian Owens: You ever put your arms out and spin really, really fast? Antonia: She does it all the time. Gillian Owens: She does? Well, that’s what love is like. It makes your heart race. It turns the world upside down. But if you’re not careful, if you don’t keep your eyes on something still, you can lose your balance. ”
Practical Magic Quotes (The Book 1995)
- “Lightning, like love, is never ruled by logic.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Sometimes the right thing feels all wrong until it is over and done with.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Pride is a funny thing; it can make what is truly worthless appear to be a treasure.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “People want to ignore what they can’t understand. They’re looking for logic at any cost.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Owens women ignored convention; they were headstrong and willful, and meant to be that way.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Goodness, in their opinion, was not a virtue but merely spinelessness and fear disguised as humility.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “She preferred cats to human beings and turned down every offer from the men who fell in love with her.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you’re headed in the exact right direction.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “In the dark morning light, her gray eyes look completely green, as though they belonged to a cat that can see in the dark.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “I never even believed in happiness. I didn’t think it existed. Now look at me. I’m ready to believe in just about anything.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “He kept thinking about the life span of a mayfly, and all the time he had wasted, and frankly he wasn’t willing to waste any more.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “The lonelier you are, the more you pull away, until humans seem an alien race, with customs and a language you can’t begin to understand.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Now whenever he kissed her, she cried and wished she had never fallen in love in the first place. It had made her too helpless, because that’s what love did.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- ″‘Everything I do is wrong. You think I don’t know that? I’ve screwed up my entire existence, and everyone who’s close to me gets screwed right along with me.‘” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “You can never tell about a person by guessing…that’s why language was invented. Otherwise, we’d all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “But love was not about practice and preparation, it was pure chance; if you took your time with it you ran the risk of having it evaporate before it had even begun.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “On evenings when the orange moon was rising in the sky, and some woman was crying in their kitchen, Sally and Gillian would lock pinkies and vow never to be ruled by their passions.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “She doesn’t brush her hair a thousand times at night, or pluck her eyebrows, or bathe with sesame oil so her skin will stay smooth. In a world without love, what is the point of any of that?” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “For her whole life she has been measuring herself against her sister, and she’s not going to do that anymore. That is the gift Gillian has given her tonight, and for that she will always be grateful.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Do you ever just put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that’s what love is like; everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but for some reason you just keep going.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “He has stumbled into love, and now he’s stuck there. He’s fairly used to not getting what he wants, and he’s dealt with it, yet he can’t help but wonder if that’s only because he didn’t want anything too badly.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “A decade or two on the rocks gives a person character. Although she’d never believe it, those lines in Gillian’s face are the most beautiful part about her. They reveal what she’s gone through and what she’s survived and who exactly she is, deep inside.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “He knew exactly how to hit a woman, so that the marks hardly showed. He knew how to kiss her, too, so that her heart began to race and she’d start to think forgiveness with every breath. It’s amazing the places that love will carry you. It’s astounding to discover just how far you’re willing to go.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “If there’s one thing Sally is now certain of, it’s how you can amaze yourself by the things you’re willing to do. Those are her daughters, the girls she wanted to lead normal lives, and she’s allowing them to stand over a pile of bones with a spaghetti *** filled mostly with lye. What has happened to her?” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Night and Day, they called them, and although neither girl laughed at this little joke or found it amusing in the least, they recognized the truth in it, and were able to understand, earlier than most sisters, that the moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “This insect, which marks off time, clicking like a clock, issues the sound no one ever wants to hear beside her beloved. A man’s tenure on earth is limited enough, but once the beetle’s ticking begins there’s no way to stop it; there’s no plug to pull, no pendulum to stop, no switch that will restore the time you once thought you had.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “Helplessness and anger make for predictable behavior: Children are certain to shove each other and pull hair, teenagers will call each other names and cry, and grown women who are sisters will say words so cruel that each syllable will take on the form of a snake, although such a snake often circles in on itself to eat its own tail once the words are said aloud.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “The aunts are so old it’s impossible to tell their age. Their hair is white and their spines are crooked. They wear long black skirts and laced leather boots. Though they haven’t left Massachusetts in more than forty years, they’re certainly not intimidated by travel. Or anything else, for that matter. They know what they want and they’re not afraid to be outspoken.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town. If a damp spring arrived, if cows in the pasture gave milk that was runny with blood, if a colt died of colic or a baby was born with a red birthmark stamped onto his cheek, everyone believed that fate must have been twisted, at least a little, by those women over on Magnolia Street.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “His grandfather told him once that witches caught you in this way- they knew how much most men love themselves and how deeply they’ll let themselves be drawn in, just for a glimpse of their own image. If you ever come face to face with a woman like this, his grandfather told him, turn and run… But of course, Gary has no intention of doing anything like that. He intends to go on drowning for a very long time.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
- “The children on the playground all heard her. They took off running together, as far away as possible from Antonia Owens, who might hex you if you did her wrong, and from her aunts, who might boil up garden toads and slip them into your stew, and from her mother, who was so angry and protective she might just freeze you in time, ensuring that you were forever trapped on the green ***** at the age of ten or eleven.” – Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
Wrapping Up
Whether you’re in awe of the Owens women’s ability to use practical magic, or are just looking for some inspiration from the book and movie, these 57 quotes have something to offer everyone. With their help, we can all take a lesson from Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic and amaze ourselves by the things we’re willing to believe in.
It’s time to embrace the potential of magic and discover the possibilities that await us!
So, what are you waiting for? Start believing in magical possibilities today with these 70 Practical Magic quotes from the film and book. Who knows? You might just surprise yourself at what you can accomplish!
