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d081982
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The Standover Man. all my life, I've been scared of men standing over me. I suppose my first standover man was my father, but he vanished before I could remember him. For some reason when I was a boy, I liked to fight. a lot of the time, I lost. Another boy, sometimes with blood falling from his nose, would be standing over me. Many years later, I needed to hide. I tried not to sleep because I as afraid of who might be there when I woke up...
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Markus Zusak |
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ef65a9c
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At first, she could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him?
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Markus Zusak |
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1a88ca1
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You're far from this. This story is just another few hundred pages of your mind.
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Markus Zusak |
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a6051ed
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The night is alive with stars, and when I lie down and look up, I get lost up there. I feel like I'm falling, but upward, into the abyss of sky above me.
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stars
sky
night
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Markus Zusak |
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46cb7f9
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Already, I know that all of this will stay with me forever. It'll haunt me, but I also fear it will make me feel grateful. I say because at times I really don't want this to be a fond memory until it's over. I also fear that nothing really ends at the en. Things just keep going as long as memory can wield its ax, always finding a soft part in your mind to cut through and enter.
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Markus Zusak |
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0b1c6e5
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I want to talk to him. I want to ask him about that girl and if he loved her and still misses her. Nothing, however, exits my mouth. How well do we really let ourselves know each other? There's a long quietness until I finally break it open. It reminds me of someone breaking bread and handing it out. In my case, I hand out a question to my friend.
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Markus Zusak |
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eb2fd87
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There are so many moments to remember and sometimes I think that maybe we're not really people at all. Maybe moments are what we are.... Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.
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Markus Zusak |
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8cf04e3
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Better that we leave the paint behind," Hans told her, "than ever forget the music."
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Markus Zusak |
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34b379c
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The injury of words. Yes, the brutality of words.
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Markus Zusak |
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f05ec25
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So many humans. So many colours. They keep triggering inside me. They harass my memory. I see them tall in their heaps, all mounted on top of each other. There is air like plastic, a horizon like setting glue. There are skies manufactured by people, punctured and leaking, and there are soft, coal-coloured clouds, beating, like black hearts. And then. There is death. Making his way through all of it. On the surface: unflappable, unwavering. ..
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Markus Zusak |
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062f654
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It is early, early morning. It's that time when it's still dark but you know the day is coming. Blue is bleeding through black. Stars are dying.
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time
stars
dark
bleeding
mornig
day
blue
dying
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Markus Zusak |
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95f0ad0
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To exemplify that particular situation, we can look to a cool day in late June. Rudy, to put it mildly, was incensed. Who did Liesel Meminger think she was, telling him she had to take the washing and ironing alone today? Wasn't he good enough to walk the streets with her? "Stop complaining, Saukerl," she reprimanded him. "I just feel bad. You're missing the game." He looked over his shoulder. "Well, if you put it like that." There was a Sc..
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rudy-steiner
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Markus Zusak |
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5e49e44
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It was Russia, January 5, 1943, and just another icy day. Out among the city and snow, there were dead Russians and Germans everywhere. Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German.
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Markus Zusak |
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5611209
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Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. Each half was glowing, and beating under all that white.
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Markus Zusak |
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a5c3314
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There was once a strange, small man. He decided three important details about his life: 1. He would part his hair from the opposite side to everyone else. 2. He would make himself a small, strange mustache. 3. He would one day rule the world. ...Yes, the Fuhrer decided that he would rule the world with words.
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Markus Zusak |
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0032b27
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My heart applauds inside my ears, first like a roaring crowd, then slows and slows until it's a solitary person, clapping with unbridled sarcasm. Clap. Clap. Clap.
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Markus Zusak |
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1c95987
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Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long.
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Markus Zusak |
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f00376e
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But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it.
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Markus Zusak |
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5008798
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Whoever named Himmel Street certainly had a healthy sense of irony. Not that is was a living hell. It wasn't. But is sure as hell wasn't heaven, either.
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Markus Zusak |
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682adaa
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Personally, I think sex should be like math. At school. No one really cares if they're crap at math. They even proclaim it. They'll say to anyone, "Yeah, I don't mind science and English, but I'm absolutely shithouse at math." And other people will laugh and say,"Yeah, me too. I would have a clue about all that logarithm shit. You should be able to say that about sex too. You should be proudly able to say, "Yeah I wouldn't have a clue abou..
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sex
humor
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Markus Zusak |
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26c261a
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The orange flames waved at the crowd as paper and print dissolved inside them. Burning words were torn from their sentences.
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words
meanings
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Markus Zusak |
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284e735
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Mistakes, mistakes, it's all I seem capable of at times.
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Markus Zusak |
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e42d0cf
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He lay with yellow hair and closed eyes, and the book thief ran toward him and fell down. She dropped the black book. "Rudy," she sobbed, "wake up...." She grabbed him by his shirt and gave him just the slightest disbelieving shake. "Wake up, Rudy," and now, as the sky went on heating and showering ash, Liesel was holding Rudy Steiner's shirt by the front. "Rudy, please." THe tears grappled with her face. "Rudy, please, wake up, Goddamn it,..
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Markus Zusak |
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6dbbd5c
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She was one if the few souls that made me wonder what's it to live.
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inspirational
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Markus Zusak |
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94c3619
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The Germans in basements were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower. For those people, life was still achievable.
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Markus Zusak |
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7b7314b
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it was raining on Himmel Street when the world ended for Liesel Meminger. The sky was dripping. Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn't quite managed.
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Markus Zusak |
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5c0fb1c
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And then there's the sickness I feel from looking at legs I can't touch, or at lips that don't smile at me. Or hips that don't reach for me. And hearts that don't beat for me.
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hips
reach
smile
legs
hearts
lips
touch
sickness
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Markus Zusak |
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c370100
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THE LAST WORDS OF MAX VANDENBURG: You've done enough.
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Markus Zusak |
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9db1bd6
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Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.
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life
sensibility
humans
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Markus Zusak |
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b8442ae
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How 'bout a kiss, ?" -- Rudy Steiner"
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Markus Zusak |
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a5aa442
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I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result.
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markus-zusak
the-book-thief
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Markus Zusak |
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8c42d18
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Yes, I know it. In the darkness of my dark beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it alright. You see? Even Death Has A Heart.
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Markus Zusak |
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aaa3a68
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I'm Angelina," she says. "Are you here to save us?" I can see a tiny spark of hope awaken in her eyes. "You're right, Angelina - I'm here to save you." "Can you? Really?" "I'll try," I say and the girl smiles."
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Markus Zusak |
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c0b66bd
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For at least twenty minutes she handed out the story. The youngest kids were soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the scene. Liesel did not. The book thief saw only the mechanics of the words--their bodies stranded on the paper, beaten down for her to walk on. Somewhere, too, in the gaps between a period and the next capital letter, there was also Max. She remembered reading to him when he was sic..
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Markus Zusak |
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ab9a44d
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When he moves, a streetlight stabs him, and the words flow out like blood.
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Markus Zusak |
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4a2285d
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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. At that moment, you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be ..
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Markus Zusak |
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023cef4
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Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain b..
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shower
holocaust
jews
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Markus Zusak |
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0472142
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It brewed in her as she eyed the pages full to the brims of their bellies with paragraphs and words. You bastards, she thought. You lovely bastards. Don't make me happy. Please, don't fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this.
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Markus Zusak |
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676749f
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And I'm not too great at that sort of comforting thing, especially when my hands are cold and the bed is warm. I carried him softly through the broken street, with one salty eye and a heavy, deathly heart. With him I tried a little harder. I watched the contents of his soul for a moment and saw a black-painted boy calling the name Jesse Owens as he ran through an imaginary tape. I saw him hip-deep in some icy water chasing a book, and I saw..
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Markus Zusak |
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796fe1e
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There are moments when you can only stand and stare, watching the world forget you as you remove yourself from it - when you overcome it and cease to exist as the person you were.
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Markus Zusak |
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f482dfc
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The bombs were coming-and so was I.
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Markus Zusak |
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093844f
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Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.
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faith
life
memory
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Markus Zusak |
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02e170f
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The human child - so much cannier at times than the stupefyingly ponderous adult.
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Markus Zusak |
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c37841f
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I'm asking you, I'm begging you, could you please shut your mouth for just five minutes?" You can imagine the reaction. They ended up in the basement."
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Markus Zusak |