Practical Magic: 20 Best Quotes, Ranked

Inspired by the Alice Hoffman novel of the same name, Practical Magic has long been a favorite when it comes to Halloween programming, and Practical Magic quotes are particularly memorable to boot. Practical Magic, however, is still a perfect watch year-round, exploring the importance of sisterhood and letting love in despite the fear of it. Filled with romance, family love, and magic, Practical Magic has become something of a cult classic. Based on the 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters, Sally and Gillian Owens. They descend from a line of witches, raised by their aunts in the ways of practical magic. Years later, the sisters team up to stop a generational curse and the spirit of an abusive ex-partner. Practical Magic is built around the sisters' relationship; Sally struggles with their magical ancestry while Gilly openly embraces it. These dynamics produced a litany of bewitching dialogue. “There’s No Devil In The Craft.” So many of the stories and movies that depict witchcraft portray it as something dark and evil. Practical Magic, and Alice Hoffman’s novels as a whole, do not. That’s an important note for the movie. The Owens women practice magic and believe in their craft, but they aren’t the bad guys, and they aren’t the devil-worshiping villains that they are painted as. When Sally finds herself and Gillian in the middle of the investigation into Jimmy’s disappearance, she is confronted with the rumors about witchcraft, and when the devil is mentioned, Sally is quick to point out that, “there’s no devil in the craft.” It’s an important moment for Sally because, despite Sally not actively practicing the craft and not wanting her daughters to be a part of all the magic, she defends it. Sally knows how others see her family, and even though she’s blamed magic for the bad in her life, Sally still understands that the magic is a part of the Owens women, and she doesn’t want her entire family to be seen as something they are not. “Hang Onto Your Husbands, Girls!” Sally Owens seems to want nothing more than to hide in a corner during much of Practical Magic. She maintains that she loves her perfect love, and she works hard to not make waves in town despite the reputation her family has. Her sister, however, has no problem being the center of attention and dragging Sally to the middle of everything with her. She wants people to talk about her to her face instead of behind her back. That’s why, when Gilly shows up at a school meeting Sally is attending, she doesn’t allow the mothers in the room to whisper about her for too long. Gilly has a reputation, but she’s simply someone who is in love with the idea of being in love, and follows her passionate nature wherever it will take her. The other women see her as a threat to their relationships, while Gilly sees them as gossips who target her family. “She's Not Saying They Murdered Him, Just That Maybe They Shook His Hand, And Then... He Died. It's Very Mysterious.” Though the Owens family has a reputation for being witches, not everyone in their small town actually wants to say something bad about them. While there are some people in town who count the Owens women as genuine friends, like those who work at Sally’s store, others are very careful in how they speak about them. It’s clear that there is a fear of the unknown. When questioned about Sally and Gilly, one of the women in town is quick to stop another from outright saying that they might be responsible for the death of Gilly’s most recent boyfriend. The people in town have seen that relationships between the Owens women and men always seem to end badly, but they don’t know the details of the Owens family curse. For all they know, the Owens women are actually using their magical talents like some sort of black widows. That’s what makes this line so funny. “You Should Come Round Here On Halloween. You'd Really See Something Then.” When Gary Hallet is tasked with investigating the disappearance of Gilly’s latest boyfriend, he spends a lot of time talking to everyone in town, but he also takes a particular interest in Sally. He lets slip that he knows people think she and her family are witches by responding “witch people” to her question about “which people” use belladonna to poison others. Sally has found herself unable to lie to him up until that point, but she takes his comment to mean he’s just like everyone else in town. Taken out of context, her line sounds like she’s teasing him about her family being witches, but really, her tone is colder than teasing, and she’s hinting that the rumors might not all be unfounded. She knows her statement is both ridiculous and true, much like what people say about her family. Nearly everything about the Owens women is embellished. The line, however, comes back around when Sally, her sister, and her aunts do, in fact, dress as the pop culture idea of witches and float to the ground from a roof on Halloween later in the movie. “Yeah, Well… You Know, All Relationships Have Problems.” From the moment Sally meets Gary, she feels like she cannot tell him a lie. She knows she has to protect herself and her sister, but there’s something that makes her want to talk to him. For his part, he knows he’s supposed to be investigating the sisters, but he can’t help but enjoy spending time with Sally as well. Sally finally realizes that everything about him matches up with a spell she cast when she was a little girl to prevent herself from falling in love, and she can’t help but tell him the truth about that either. Sally tells him: "It's not real. And if you stay, I wouldn't know if it was because of the spell and... you wouldn't know if it was because I didn't want to go to prison." She’s upfront with him that their relationship might not have any basis in reality, but Gary doesn’t even care about that. His response indicates that what he feels is very real, and he’s willing to work through Sally seeing that as a problem. “Flip The Switch And Let The Cauldron Bubble!” Aunt Jet and Aunt Frances team up to create a seemingly strange concoction in their kitchen. They trade off on naming ingredients in their recipe that the audience might initially think is a spell, but when Aunt Frances gets to this line, it’s clear what they’re making is a little more modern. With the help of a blender, Frances and Jet make “midnight margaritas” for themselves, Sally, and Gilly. The drinking on screen reportedly happened off-screen, and the four actors got completely into character for the sequence and had a lot of fun together. It’s one of the few lighthearted sequences in the entire movie, until, of course, Sally and Gilly realize that the tequila they’re drinking is actually Jimmy’s. It’s also spawned a tradition of women gathering to watch the movie in the fall and making their own version of midnight margaritas. “Since When Is Being A Slut A Crime In This Family?” Out of context, this particular Practical Magic quote from Sally Owens sounds mean-spirited, but it’s not in the movie. The Owens women are more than ready to poke fun at one another and take the things that others dislike about them to give themselves power. Gillian loves to fall in love. Outside the family, that’s frowned upon, and she knows how people see her, which is why she also tells women to “lock up their husbands” when she’s back in town. The aunts and Sally, however, love Gillian for who she is. Even if Gillian brings an abusive boyfriend and a haunting to their doorstep, they love her. They know that she has a big heart, and she feels things deeply. Sally knows that when the aunts poke fun at Gillian, they don’t mean it, and neither does she. Practical Magic's focus on sisterhood is one of its big draws for its audience. "You Can't Practice Witchcraft When You Look Down Your Nose At It." When Practical Magic begins, Sally Owens isn't as enamored with the family's craft as her sister, her aunts, or her daughters. She blames magic for the loss of her parents and the loss of her husband. She wants a "normal" life. That doesn't stop her from turning to magic to help her sister, though — and to find it backfiring on her yet again. As her Aunt Jet points out in this Practical Magic quote, it's not possible for Sally to fully commit to using the craft when she's continually against it. The same is true in life — if a person despises something, chances are, they'll never give the experience their all. Sally learns that firsthand over the course of the movie. Practical Magic is as much about sisterhood as it is Sally's coming-of-age as a witch. "Curses Only Have Power When You Believe In Them, And I Don't." Part of the reason Sally spends too much time avoiding magic is that she knows it's real. She understands the power of the family curse, and she's terrified of it. She thinks if she avoids magic completely, it might not affect her. The detective who develops feelings for her while he searches for Gilly's ex-boyfriend, however, doesn't believe in magic. He doesn't understand why the Owens women are seen as witches and doesn't understand Sally's reluctance to admit her interest in them. Despite him giving Sally this line, she still attempts to keep her distance from him. Of course, since Sally's love for her sister ends up breaking the curse, after all, maybe he's right to disagree with her. Gary offers Sally a grounded perspective in the movie, even as she feels like her world is falling apart. "There's A Little Witch In All Of Us." At the climax of the movie, Sally needs to build herself a coven to help get rid of the spirit of Gilly's ex for good. That's easier said than done when she keeps to herself and most of the inhabitants of her small town talk about her behind her back. She calls in the phone tree for her daughter's class, and it turns out to be one of the best decisions she could have made, as the women prove that, despite the gossip, they do care. Some of them even recount stories of magical moments in their own lives, prompting Aunt Jet to tell them, "There's a little witch in all of us." It's one of the quotes from Practical Magic that makes it clear that Sally is no longer going to be the town pariah.