THE BOOK THIEF QUOTES DEATH

“I am haunted by humans.”

“I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases; I carried them in my heart, like children. Because it was all I could do to keep them alive.”

“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

“Sometimes I arrive too late. I see the dead sometimes before they die.”

“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 overestimating and underestimating the human race – that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”

“I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”

“The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like the clouds. She would wring them out, like the rain.”

“She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain.”

“His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do – the best ones. The ones who rise up and say, ‘I know who you are, and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.’ Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.”

“The consequence of this is that I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.”

“I think it’s a bonus of human error, one of the best ones actually: ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.'”

“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 overestimating and underestimating the human race – that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.”

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.”

“She was saying goodbye and she didn’t even know it.”

“The moment that followed was heavily compiled. It made the Australians sound a lot like Germans because both of them were silent.” TUESDAY CHOOSE DAY QUOTES

“How do they know for sure?”

“There were shocked syllables coughed up through cuffed noses, and porridge of spit and tears on their chins.”

“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.”

“In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer – proof again that humans are the most selfish creatures on earth.”

“This is an abstract painting in its most basic form, with everything stripped away. It’s me without trying too hard. That’s what it is.”

“Aidan knocked at night’s door, which was now continuing on its way. Rudy always asked for more.”

“I dressed him with snow.”

“I think humans are capable of moments of great sorrow and great compassion. Certainly, He wanted us to be.”

“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”

“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me, it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment.”

“I can’t tell you the exact moment when I fell in love with her. Only that with every kiss, every touch, every soul that is surrenders to another, I lost myself a little more.”

“I am essentially in the dark about the lives of people in the era I am living in; functioning only as a representative of their death.”

“As the sky was crumbling, a dead-still universe was called upon to perform a movement of silence, while a cold, iron heart constricted faster inside a dying animal.”

“You see, I love beautiful things, and I’m perfect in the most imperfect way possible.”