Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"As always, one of her books was next to her."
149 Quotes
"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 possible to see paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen. With wonder, she smiled. That such a room existed!"
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"As always, she was carrying the washing. Rudy was carrying two buckets of cold water, or as he put it, two buckets of future ice."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"She wanted none of those days to end, and it was always with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"You should give it to Max, Liesel. See if you can leave it on the bedside table, like all the other things." Liesel watched him as if he'd gone insane. "How, though" Lightly, he tapped her skull with his knuckles. "Memorize it. Then write it down for him."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"And I can promise you something, because it was a thing I saw many years later - a vision in the book thief herself - that as she knelt next to Hans Hubermann, she watched him stand and play the accordion. He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses and played the accordion with kindness silver eyes and even a cigarette slouched on his lips. The bellows breathed and the tall man played for Liesel Meminger one last time as the sky was slowly taken away from her."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Could she smell my breath? Could she hear my cursed circular heart beat revolving like the crime it is in my deathly chest?"
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"For two days I went about my business. I travelled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"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."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"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 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 repeating one thing, incessantly. 'Get it done, get it done'. So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss however, does not thank you. He asks for more."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you may expect, someone has died."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"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."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"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 their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"for some reason, dying men always ask the question they know the answer to. perhaps it's so they can die being right."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
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