Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

"Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?"

"A halo surrounded the grim reaper nun, Sister Maria. (By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.)"

"I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away."

"I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life."

"He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world.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."

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

"It kills me sometimes, how people die."

"If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive."

"The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was important."

"If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter."

"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."

"Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction."

"A halo surrounded the grim reaper nun, Sister Maria. (By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.)"

"***A KEY WORD*** Imagined"

"How does it feel, anyway?"How does what feel?"When you take one of those books?"At that moment, she chose to keep still. If he wants an answer, he'd have to come back, and he did. "Well?"he asked, but again, it was the boy who replied, before Liesel could even open her mouth.It feels good, doesn't it? To steal something back."

"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."

"Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced."

"Grimly, she realized that clocks don't make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave."

"***HERE IS A SMALL FACT*** You are going to die."

"Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."