The Book Thief

“The bombs were coming-and so was I.”

“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...”

“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 t...”

“So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

“***HERE IS A SMALL FACT*** You are going to die.”

“I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life.”

“Jesus, Mary …” She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It...”

“A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of t...”

“Could she smell my breath? Could she hear my cursed circular heart beat revolving like the crime it is in my deathly chest?”

“A halo surrounded the grim reaper nun, Sister Maria. (By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.)”

“Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion! But his bellows were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out.”

“The paper landed on the table, but the news was stapled to his chest. A tattoo.”

“Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.”

“She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely pos...”

“A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH I do not carry a sickle or scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold. And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me fr...”

“Steadily, the room shrank, till the book thief could touch the shelves within a few small steps. She ran the back of her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernai...”

“Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”

“... And the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever.”

“I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly...”

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

“Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long.”

“The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.”

“The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was important.”

“Death's Diary: 1942 - It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to just name a few. Forget the scythe, God damn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a holiday. (...) They say th...”