Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"You can't eat books, sweetheart."
149 Quotes
"I actually feel quite self-indulgent at the moment, telling you all about me, me, me.(...) On the other hand, you're a human -you should understand self obsession."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"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. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair and surprise."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"It was one of those moments of perfect tiredness, of having conquered not only the work at hand, but the night who had blocked the way."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Personally, I like a chocolate-covered sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every color I see - the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off the stress. It helps me relax."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. Ther words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Their heartbeats fought each other, a mess of rhythm. Liesel tried to eat hers down. The taste of heart was not too cheerful."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment.'There were stars,' He said. 'They burned my eyes.’...from a Himmel street window, he wrote, the stars set fire to my eyes."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"I..." He struggled to answer. "When everything was quiet, I went up to the corridor and the curtain in the livingroom was open just a crack... I could see outside. I watched, only for a few seconds." He had not seen the outside world for twenty-two months. There was no anger or reproach. It was Papa who spoke. How did it look"Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment. "There were stars," he said. "They burned by eyes."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Papa!” she whispered. “I have no eyes!”He patted the girl’s hair. She’d fallen into his trap. “With a smile like that,” Hans Hubermann said, “you don’t need eyes."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it's stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun islike a yellow hole. . ."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"...one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"She didn't see him watching as he played, having no idea that Hans Hubermann's accordion was a story. In the times ahead, that story would arrive at 33 Himmel Street in the early hours of morning, wearing ruffled shoulders and a shivering jacket. It would carry a suitcase, a book, and two questions. A story. Story after story. Story within story."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"He was waving. "Saukerl," she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think that's as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"She stood up and took the book from him, and as he smiled over his shoulder at some other kids, she threw it away and kicked him as hard as she could in the vicinity of the groin. Well, as you might imagine, Ludwig Schmeikl certainly buckled, and on the way down, he was punched in the ear. When he landed, he was set upon. When he was set upon, he was slapped and clawed and obliterated by a girl who was utterly consumed with rage. His skin was so warm and soft. Her knuckles and fingernails were so frighteningly tough, despite their smal"
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
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