Quotes from book

The Book Thief

“What do you want to kiss me for? I'm filthy.'- Liesel
So am I.'- Rudy”

“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)”

“The silence was always the greates temptation.”

“The injury of words.
Yes, the brutality of words.”

“… to swear with a ferocity that can only be described as a talent.”

“It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.”

“Saumensch, du dreckiges—it’s about time!”

“You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. find yourself a mirror while I continue.”

“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.”

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”

“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.”

“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew.”

“The bombs were coming-and so was I.”

“Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. Each half was glowing, and beating under all that white.”

“She could smell the pages. She could almost taste the words as they stacked up around her.”

“When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.”

“There was also a rumor that later in the day, she walked fully clothed into the Amper River and said something very strange.
Something about a kiss.
Something about a Saumensch.
How many times did she have to say goodbye?”

“Five hundred souls.
I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the the children I carried in my arms.”

“It's hard to not like a man who not only notices the colors, but speaks them.”