“… 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 CHILD must know that he is a MIRACLE, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world will not be, another child like him.”

“In the end it's the pain of being replaceable that turns out to be the hardest to bear.”

“Hope.It's like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It's a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it's the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.”

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

“Dirk turned on the car wipers, which grumbled because they didn't have quite enough rain to wipe away, so he turned them off again. Rain quickly speckled the windscreen. He turned on the wipers again, but they still refused to feel that the exercise was worthwhile, and scraped and squeaked in protest.”