“Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands.”

“***CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM*** MAX VANDENBURGOften I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands. ”

“There was an itchy lung for a last cigarette and an immense, magnetic pull toward the basement, for the girl who was his daughter and was writing a book down there he hoped to read one day. Liesel. His soul whispered it as I carried him. But there was no Liesel in that house. Not for me, anyway.”

“It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.”

“When you wish for something over and over again and it doesn't come true, something else happens; not only do you give up, but you resent your wish and you resent wishing.”

“I know that somehow, every step I took since the moment I could walk was a step towards finding you.”