Markus Zusak

“20 minutes later: a girl on Himmel Street. She looks up. She speaks in whisper. ‘The sky is soft today, Max. The clouds are so soft and sad, and…’ She looks away and crosses her arms. She thinks of her papa going to war and grabs her jacket at each side of her body. ‘And it’s cold, Max. It’s so cold…”

“And I stop listening to me, because to put it bluntly, I tire me.”

“To exemplify that particular situation, we can look to a cool day in late June. Rudy, to put it mildly, was incensed. Who did Liesel Meminger think she was, telling him she had to take the washing and ironing alone today? Wasn’t he good enough to walk the streets with her?“Stop complaining, Saukerl,” she reprimanded him. “I just feel bad. You’re missing the game.”He looked over his shoulder.“Well, if you put it like that.” There was a Schmunzel. “You can stick your washing.”He ran off and wasted no time joining a team. When Liesel made it to the top of Himmel Street, she looked back just in time to see him standing in front of the nearest makeshift goals. He was waving.“Saukerl,” she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think that’s as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get.”

“A book floated down the Amper River.A boy jumped in, caught up to it, and heldit in his right hand. He grinned. He stoodwaist-deep in the icy, Decemberish water.“How about a kiss, Saumensch?” he said.”

“It's hard to not like a man who not only notices the colors, but speaks them.”

“There are so many moments to remember and sometimes I think that maybe we're not really people at all. Maybe moments are what we are.... Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.”

“It brewed in her as she eyed the pages full to the brims of their bellies with paragraphs and words.You bastards, she thought.You lovely bastards.Don’t make me happy. Please, don’t fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this.”

“My heart is so tired”

“Sometimes I just survive.But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.”

“You can do anything when it's not real.When it is real, nothing breaks your fall. Nothing gets between you and the ground.”

“There are moments when you can only stand and stare, watching the world forget you as you remove yourself from it - when you overcome it and cease to exist as the person you were.”

“Things always seem to glide away.They come to you, stay a moment, then leave again.”

“If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.”

“What do you want to kiss me for? I'm filthy.'- LieselSo am I.'- Rudy”

“She gave her a reason to write her own words, to see that words had also brought her to life. "Don't punish yourself," she heard her say again, but there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.”

“Competence was attractive.”

“A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”

“I want to talk to him.I want to ask him about that girl and if he loved her and still misses her.Nothing, however, exits my mouth. How well do we really let ourselves know each other?There's a long quietness until I finally break it open. It reminds me of someone breaking bread and handing it out. In my case, I hand out a question to my friend.”

“What would you do if you were me? Tell me. Please tell me!But you're far from this. Your fingers turn the strangeness of these pages that somehow connect my life to yours. Your eyes are safe. The story is just another few hundred pages of your mind. For me, it's here. It's now. I have to go through with this, considering the cost at every turn. Nothing will be the same.”

“Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.”

“I..." He struggled to answer. "When everything was quiet, I went up to the corridor and the curtain in the livingroom was open just a crack... I could see outside. I watched, only for a few seconds." He had not seen the outside world for twenty-two months.There was no anger or reproach.It was Papa who spoke.How did it look?"Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment. "There were stars," he said. "They burned by eyes.”

“The Gunman is useless. I know it. He knows it. The whole bank knows it.”

“She kept watching the words. ”

“If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter. ”

“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”

“She wanted none of those days to end, and it was always with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward. ”

“Grimly, she realized that clocks don't make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave. ”

“Even death has a heart.”

“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.”

“The point is, Ilsa Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph. When it refused to let go of her, she succumbed to it. She embraced it. ”

“Liesel's blood had dried inside of her. It crumbled. She almost broke into pieces on the steps.”

“It’s funny, don’t you think, how time seems to do a lot of things? It flies, it tells, and worst of all, it runs out.”

“Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or to forget? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives?”

“I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.”

“He's most likely robbing the bank as a paycheck on the world for winning the ugliness prize at his local fete three years running.”

“All my friends seem to be smart arses. Don't ask me why. Like many things, it is what it is.”

“Hals und Beinbruch, Saukerl.”

“There were not many people who could say that their education had been paid for with cigarettes.”

“They'd been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.”

“One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.”

“No, I'm not a saint, Sophie. I'm just another stupid human.”

“In all honesty (and I know I’m complaining excessively now), I was still getting over Stalin, in Russia. The so-called second revolution—the murder of his own people. Then came Hitler. They say that war is death’s best friend, but I must offer you a different point of view on that one. To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: “Get it done, get it done.” So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.”

“I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there.”

“See, Cameron. The only things I care about in this life are me, you, Mum, Dad, Steve and Sarah. And maybe Miffy. The rest of the world means nothing to me. The rest of the world can rot.'Am I like that too?'You? No way.' There's a slight gap in his words. 'And that's your problem. You care about everything.'He's right.I do.”

“It's a lot easier, she realized, to be on the verge of something than to actually be it. This would still take time.”

“He stood a few meters from the step and spoke with great conviction, great joy. "Alles ist Scheisse," he announced.All is shit.”

“Personally, I think sex should be like math.At school.No one really cares if they're crap at math. They even proclaim it. They'll say to anyone, "Yeah, I don't mind science and English, but I'm absolutely shithouse at math." And other people will laugh and say,"Yeah, me too. I would have a clue about all that logarithm shit. You should be able to say that about sex too. You should be proudly able to say, "Yeah I wouldn't have a clue about all that orgasm shit, ay. I'm okay at everything else but when it comes to that part I wouldn't have a clue.”

“… it was raining on Himmel Street when the world ended for Liesel Meminger.The sky was dripping.Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn’t quite managed.”

“The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.”

“First the colours.Then the humans.That’s usually how I see things.Or at least, how I try.”