"Wicked" around the world

London, Minneapolis and Los Angeles: Sister, baby brother and I all saw the musical Wicked at different theaters around the world within two weeks of each other. The best part is that none of us really planned it. Paul got tickets through his study abroad, I got offered an extra ticket from a friend, and Katie's show was a birthday present.
Almost ten years ago I read the book and Gregory Maguire's descriptive prose made me feel like I was swimming in colors, smells, and textures. It brought me to a specific place and time as only one other author ever had: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Maguire's scenes were as vivid to me as the cocktail party Daisy visited at Gatsby's house. Even seeing the play, with the bright costumes flashing and music surrounding me didn't compare to reading the book.
His writing makes my fingers itch to take up a pen and there was one passage that has become a bit like the holy grail of composition to me. I read it and want to dive in.

"The skies throbbed with turqoise, even at midnight. Starlight and comet tails burned the tips of endless grass below into a hammered silver like thousands of tapers in the chapel, just blown out but still glowing. If she could drown in the grass, she thought, it might be the best way to die."
-Gregory Maguire, Wicked

Someday I would like to be able to write like that.