# Quote — Lev Grossman, The Magicians

> “Are you smart?”
>
> There was no non-embarrassing answer to this.
>
> “I guess.”
>
> “Don’t worry about it, everybody here is. If they even brought you in for the Exam you were the smartest person in your school, teachers included. Everyone here was the cleverest little monkey in his or her particular tree. Except now we’re all in one tree together. It can be a shock. Not enough coconuts to go round. You’ll be dealing with your equals for the first time in your life, and your betters. You won’t like it.”

- Author: [Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md)
- Book: [The Magicians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians.md)
- Page: 44
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lev_Grossman#The_Magicians_(2009)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/are-you-smart

## More from this book

> He had no interest in TV anymore—it looked like an electronic puppet show to him, an artificial version of an imitation world that meant nothing to him anyway.

p. 167 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/he-had-no-interest.md)

> “Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there’s nothing else. It’s here, and you’d better decide to enjoy it or you’re going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.”
>
> “You can’t just decide to be happy.”
>
> “No, you can’t. But you can sure as hell decide to be miserable. Is that what you want?”

p. 333 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/stop-looking-for.md)

> He was experimenting cautiously with the idea of being happy, dipping and uncertain toe into those intoxicatingly carbonated waters. It wasn’t something he had much practice at.

p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/he-was-experimenting.md)