|
970babc
|
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 |
|
5696f04
|
Each night, Liesel would step outside, wipe the door, and watch the sky. Usually it was like spillage - cold and heavy, slippery and gray - but once in a while some stars had the nerve to rise and float, if only for a few minutes. On those nights, she would stay a little longer and wait. Hello, stars.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
390a23b
|
And I stop listening to me, because to put it bluntly, I tire me.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
157430f
|
The day was gray, the color of Europe.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
060c2ac
|
I had to decide what I was going to do, and what I was going to be. I was standing there, waiting for someone to do something , till I realised the person I was waiting for was myself.
|
|
do-something
waiting
|
Markus Zusak |
|
1edd539
|
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.
|
|
time
|
Markus Zusak |
|
b349c90
|
When her hands reached out and poured the tea, it was as if she also poured something into me while I sat there sweating in my cab. It was like she held a string and pulled on it just slightly to open me up. She got in, put a piece of herself inside me, and left again.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
23a45cc
|
If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter and bread with only the scent of jam spread on top of it. It was the best time of her life.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
c5259fd
|
I realize that nothing belongs to her anymore and she belongs to everything.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
0b3bbb6
|
It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.
|
|
snowmen
snowman
|
Markus Zusak |
|
41958fe
|
We both laugh and run and the moment is so thick around me that i feel like dropping into it to let it carry me.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
4081d74
|
to swear with a ferocity that can only be described as a talent.
|
|
cuss
ferocity
language
|
Markus Zusak |
|
75f7052
|
Competence was attractive.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
7103769
|
And the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever.
|
|
color
death
lemon
forever
hair
memory
|
Markus Zusak |
|
26c8477
|
Son, you can't go around painting yourself black, you hear?" "Why not, Papa?" "Because they'll take you away." "Why?" "Because you shouldn't want to be like black people or Jewish people or anyone who is...not us." "Who are Jewish people?" "You know my oldest customer, Mr. Kaufmann? Where we bought your shoes?" "Yes." "Well, he's Jewish." "I didn't know that. Do you have to pay to be Jewish? Do you need a license?" ..... "...you'..
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
ae346b0
|
Why can't the world hear? I ask myself. Within a few moments I ask it many times. Because it doesn't care, I finally answer, and I know I'm right. It's like I've been chosen. But chosen for what? I ask.
|
|
world
|
Markus Zusak |
|
92b4518
|
The Gunman is useless. I know it. He knows it. The whole bank knows it.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
4cb5233
|
He killed himself for wanting to live.
|
|
suicide
life
|
Markus Zusak |
|
1a815c2
|
Why me?' I ask God. God says nothing. I laugh and the stars watch. It's good to be alive.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
790b00b
|
No, I'm not a saint, Sophie. I'm just another stupid human.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
e6bf97f
|
You might well ask just what the hell he was thinking. The answer is, probably nothing at all.He'd probably say he was exercising his God-given right to stupidity.
|
|
stupidity
the-book-thief
|
Markus Zusak |
|
71df784
|
The point is, Ilsa Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph. When it refused to let go of her, she succumbed to it. She embraced it.
|
|
suffering
triumph
|
Markus Zusak |
|
a4efe49
|
They'd been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
3a514ca
|
If I ever leave this place- I'll make sure I'm better HERE first.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
a02163e
|
There were stars. They burned my eyes.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
c5ba940
|
And they would all smile at the beauty of destruction.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
118e83c
|
First the colours. Then the humans. That's usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
8773da4
|
After another ten minutes, the gates of thievery would open just a crack, and Liesel Meminger would widen them a little further and squeeze through. ***TWO QUESTIONS*** Would the gates shut behind her? Or would they have the goodwill to let her back out? As Liesel would discover, a good thief requires many things. Stealth. Nerve. Speed. More important than any of those things, however, was one final requirement. Luck. Actually. Forget the ..
|
|
liesel-meminger
markus-zusak
the-book-thief
thieves
|
Markus Zusak |
|
502b82b
|
After perhaps thirty meters, just as a soldier turned around, the girl was felled. Hands were clamped upon her from behind and the boy next door brought her down. He forced her knees to the road and suffered the penalty. He collected her punches as if they were presents. Her bony hands and elbows were accepted with nothing but a few short moans. He accumulated the loud, clumsy specks of saliva and tears as if they were lovely to his face, a..
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
7928497
|
Possibly the only good to come out of these nightmares was that it brought Hans Hubermann, her new papa, into the room, to soothe her, to love her. He came every night and sat with her. The first couple of times, he simply stayed - a stranger to kill the aloneness. A few nights after that, he whispered, "Shhh, I'm here, it's all right." After three weeks he held her. Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the..
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
af46f67
|
Clearly," said Arthur,"you're an idiot- but you're our kind of idiot. Come on."
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
27052ac
|
It's not the place, I think. It's the people. We'd have all been the same anywhere else.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
349be39
|
Oh, come on, Arthur." "I don't want to hear it, Andy." "Jesus Christ" "He doesn't want to hear it, either."
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
594c32c
|
She even touches Jimmy's face on the photos, and I see what it is to love someone like Milla loved that man. Her fingertips are made of love.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
fd719bc
|
It was one of those moments of perfect tiredness, of having conquered not only the work at hand, but the night who had blocked the way.
|
|
tiredness
|
Markus Zusak |
|
d19efb0
|
Yes, I'm often reminded of her, and in one of my array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each one extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt - an immense leap of an attempt - to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
9e1d913
|
You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. find yourself a mirror while I continue.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
0f95291
|
Ed?" Ritchie says later. We're still standing in the water. "There's only one thing I want." "What's that, Ritchie?" His answer is simple. "To want."
|
|
passion
life
|
Markus Zusak |
|
72fd4b8
|
I watch the beauty for as long as I can, then turn and face the rest of it.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
3163bce
|
Papa sat with me tonight. He brought the accordion down and sat close to where Max used to sit. I often look at his fingers and face when he plays. the accordion breathes. There are lines on his cheeks. They look drawn on, and for some reason, when I see them, I want to cry. It is not for any sadness or pride. I just like the way they move and change. Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I ..
|
|
papa
the-book-thief
|
Markus Zusak |
|
90bb799
|
and the night is so deep and dark that I wonder if the sun will ever come up.
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |
|
008ad45
|
The bittersweetness of uncertainty: To win or to lose.
|
|
world-war
nazi
jews
|
Markus Zusak |
|
d41c916
|
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 |
|
560d924
|
Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or to forget? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives?
|
|
|
Markus Zusak |