“.. a circle of inner radiance,as calm as it was bright.Teach me to live that I may dreadThe Grave as little as my bed.”

“Teach me to live, that I may dreadThe grave as little as my bed.Teach me to die…”

“May God ever dress our days in peace and starlight order.”

“I went back to those graves not long afterward and found as I stood there that sadness was a very heavy thing. My body weighed twice what it had only a moment earlier, as if those graves were pulling me down toward them.”

“To make great art, one first must become insane and desperate.”

“Everything happens for a reason.Do not do unto others what you do not want others do unto you.”

“On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy Steiner was robbery--so much life, so much to live for--yet somehow, I'm certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. He'd have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his decimated body. He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips.Yes, I know it.In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it all right.You see?Even death has a heart.”