The Book Thief

"One last time, she read the words of the boy who had stolen the world."

"The book thief stole books. On the way down the basement steps, she thought about her life."

"I'm not a thief. I'm a borrower."

"Words are life."

"When she arrived in Sydney, she was finally able to see the whole book."

"Sometimes I imagine how everything's changed, like there are two separate worlds now - before and after."

"Even if I couldn't see the end, at least now I know the beginning."

"The most powerful words are four words long: 'I want to know you.'"

"I am haunted by humans."

"A small fact: You didn't ask for the real world to work this way. It is the world that asks you."

"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."

"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

"Liesel was not a victim of the war. She was a survivor of it."

"She discovered that beneath the harsh exterior of Rosa Hubermann beat the heart of a mother."

"The war had taken everything from her, but it had also given her something precious."

"In the end, there was only the girl and the words, and nothing else mattered."

"She was the opposite of a book thief. She was a word giver."

"They burned books as if burning words could burn away the truth."

"The girl was not beautiful. She was not clever. But she had something that could not be given or earned."

"Death does not care about the living. He only collects them."

"She wrote her own stories to replace the ones that had been stolen from her."

"Liesel understood that people are made of stories, not of flesh and bone."

"The accordion played a melody that meant forgiveness."

"In the basement, Max Vandenburg dreamed of words he could never write."

"She read to him because words were the only things left that mattered."

"The Nazis had killed her family and everyone she loved, but they could not kill her spirit."

"She was the girl who had survived two wars, two languages, and a lifetime of words."

"Hans Hubermann sat alone. He was guilty, and he was afraid."

"Rosa Hubermann was not a soft woman, but she was kind in her own harsh way."

"The book thief and the boy next door were linked by something as simple as yellow stars."