“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”
24 likes
Book index
Work
The Book Thief
The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. “The kind of book that can be life-changing.” —The New York Times
Quotes
57 results
Showing 1-24 of 57
Markus Zusak
Canonical work source
“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.”
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“Even death has a heart.”
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“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”
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“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.”
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“He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world. She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Lie...”
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“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”
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“A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”
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“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.”
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“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly o...”
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“I am haunted by humans.”
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“I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some poi...”
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“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”
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“Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?”
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“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
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“A DEFINITION NOT FOUND IN THE DICTIONARY Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children”
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“The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.”
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“If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive.”
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“He killed himself for wanting to live.”
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“***A KEY WORD*** Imagined”
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“She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of...”
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“Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When t...”
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“It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to name just a few. Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a vacation.”
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“for some reason, dying men always ask the question they know the answer to. perhaps it's so they can die being right.”
2 likes