Quotes from Markus Zusak

How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing.

It's my heart that is tired. A thirteen-year-old heart shouldn't feel like this.

When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.

Clearly, I see it. I was just about to leave when I found her kneeling there. A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her. She was clucthing at a book.

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.

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.

Summer came. For the books thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews.

20 minutes later: a girl on Himmel Street. She looks up. She speaks in whisper. 'The sky is soft today, Max. The clouds are so soft and sad, and…' She looks away and crosses her arms. She thinks of her papa going to war and grabs her jacket at each side of her body. 'And it's cold, Max. It's so cold…

Maybe one morning I'll wake up and step outside of myself to look back at the old me lying dead among the sheets.

Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.

She slid a book from the shelf and sat with it on the floor. She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words lttered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be ant of this. What good were the words? The book thief stood and waled carefully to the library door.

An eleven-year-old girl is many things, but she is not stupid.

She places her hands around my neck and rests her head on my shoulder. I can smell the sex on her, and my hope is that she can smell the love on me.

She was like a lone angel floating above the surface of the earth, laughing with delight because she could fly but crying out of loneliness.

Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his thereness.

Rudy handed it back. Speaking of which, I think we're both slightly in for it when we get home. You especially. Why me? You know- your mama. What about her? Liesel was exercising the blatant right of every person who's ever belonged to a family. It's all very well for such a person to whine and moan and criticize other family members, but they won't let anyone else do it. That's when you get your back up and show loyalty.

Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes. I like that a lot.

I'd been in love with her for years. I never left this suburban town. I didn't go to university. I went to Audrey.

So I saw that there was only me. There was only me who could worry about what was happening here, inside these walls of my life. Other people had their own worlds to worry about, and in the end, they had to fend for themselves, just like us.

Todo el mundo sabe que una bola de nieve en la cara es el comienzo perfecto de una amistad duradera.

Rudy Steiner temía el beso de la ladrona de libros. Debía de haberlo deseado con todas sus fuerzas. Debió de haberla querido con todo su corazón. Tanto, que nunca más volvería a pedírselo y se iría a la tumba sin él.

Liesel shrugged away entirely from the crowd and entered the tide of Jews, weaving through them till she grabbed hold of his arm with her left hand. His face fell on her. It reached down as she tripped, and the Jew,the nasty Jew, helped her up. It took all of his strength.

Things always seem to glide away. They come to you, stay a moment, then leave again.

Even enemies were an inch away from friendship.