# Quote — Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

> It was funny about magic, how messy and imperfect it was. When people said something worked like magic they meant that it cost nothing and did exactly what you wanted it to. But there were lots of things magic couldn’t do. It couldn’t raise the dead. It couldn’t make you happy. He couldn’t make you good-looking. And even with the things it could do, it didn’t always do them right. And it always, always cost something.

- Author: [Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md)
- Book: [The Magician's Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land.md)
- Page: 260
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lev_Grossman#The_Magician's_Land_(2014)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/it-was-funny

## More from this book

> She was starting to suspect that facing up to the nightmare of the past is what gives you the power to build your future.

p. 369 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/she-was-starting.md)

> I admit that you might possibly not be deluding yourself about that.

p. 396 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/i-admit-that.md)

> Heads turned. This was gossip of the very first water—pure pharmaceutical-grade gossip.

p. 256 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/heads-turned-this.md)