The Book Thief Quotes About Words
"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words. ."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Book Thief Quotes About Books & reading
"As always, one of her books was next to her."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"You can't eat books, sweetheart."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"One was a book thief. The other stole the sky."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"It’s a small story really, about, among other things:
* A girl
* Some words
* An accordionist
* Some fanatical Germans
* A Jewish fist fighter
* And quite a lot of thievery"
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"I like that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing—that words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They're the best moments in a day of writing—when an image appears that you didn't know would be there when you started work in the morning."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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)
The Book Thief Quotes About Humanity
"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. (Death)"
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?"
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"You’re a human, you should understand self-obsession."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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 and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant...I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
The Book Thief Death Quotes
"It kills me sometimes, how people die."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Even death has a heart."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"A small fact:
You are going to die....does this worry you?"
— 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)
"The song was born on her breathe and died at her lips."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies.
I've seen millions of them.
I've seen more eclipses than I care to remember"
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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 thin, 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)
Book Thief Quotes About Suffering
"He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day."
— 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 could argue that Liesel Meminger has it easy. She did have it easy compared to Max Vandenburg. Certainly, her brother practically died in her arms. Her mother abandoned her.
But anything was better than being a Jew."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
The Book Thief Best Quotes
"...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)
"I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"A DEFINITION NOT FOUNDIN THE DICTIONARY
Not leaving: an act of trust and love,often deciphered by children"
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words. I watched their love visions and freed them from their fear."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Book Thief Quotes About Relationships
"If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter. "
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"She was saying goodbye and she didn't even know it."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Hair the color of lemons,'" Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. "You told him about me?"
At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? It's likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didn't matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty for it, waiting.
Of course I told him about you," Liesel said."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"
He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Book Thief Quotes About Colors
"So many humans. So many colors. ."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"It's hard to not like a man who not only notices the colors, but speaks them."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Book Thief Quotes About Friendship
"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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 trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers...She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on..."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Book Thief Quotes About Others (Poverty, )
"My heart is so tired"— 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)
"Please, trust me, I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction."— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
The Book Thief Quotes About Good And Evil
"So much good, so much evil. Just add water."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer - proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Quotes About Stealing & Courage
"Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?"
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"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."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Book Thief Quotes About Kindness & Family
"Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father's eyes. They were made of kindness, and silver."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Goodbye, Papa, you saved me. You taught me to read. No one can play like you. I'll never drink champagne. No one can play like you."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
"Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes."
— 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)