“He was tall and abrupt and exactly the kind of guy you wanted to be walking the streets with.”

“We used to languish when we walked, or sidle down the street like dogs that have just done something wrong. Now Rube walks upright, because he's on the attack.”

“Awkward.That's exactly how it was when we walked over to our sister and stood on each side of her, looking at her and feeling things and not knowing what to do.”

“He left Himmel Street wearing his hangover and a suit.”

“It would then be brought abruptly to an end, for the brightness had shown suffering the way.”

“How'd it feel?" Rube asked himself. "I don't know exactly, but it made me want to howl.”

“And I can promise you something, because it was a thing I saw many years later - a vision in the book thief herself - that as she knelt next to Hans Hubermann, she watched him stand and play the accordion. He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses and played the accordion with kindness silver eyes and even a cigarette slouched on his lips. The bellows breathed and the tall man played for Liesel Meminger one last time as the sky was slowly taken away from her.”