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

Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion! But his bellows were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out.

No one else could carry close to forty-five thousand people in such a short amount of time. Not in a million human years.

His soul sat up. It met me.Those kinds of souls always do – the best ones. The ones who rise up and say, ‘I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I...

It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding.

I bet that guy was as obsessed with Sarah as I am with this other girl, and I bet he promised himself never to hurt her, just like I’ve been doin’ – and look what...

If you’re optimistic, think of it as bronze.

It’s not so much that the old friend is a better friend. It’s just that you know the person better, and you know they don’t really care if you’re acting like a poor, grovelling idiot....

There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if it were empty.

I carried [Rudy] softly through the broken street…with him I tried a little harder [at comforting]. I watched the contents of his soul for a moment and saw a black-painted boy calling the name Jesse...

..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.

I kept walking. Have you ever done that? Just walk. Just walk and have no idea where you’re going? It wasn’t a good feeling, but not a bad one either. I felt caged and free...

Our own place is mall perhaps, but when your old man is eaten by his own shadow, you realise that maybe in every house, something so savage and sad and brilliant is standing up, without...

When I picked him up originally, the boy’s spirit was soft and cold, like ice-cream. He started melting in my arms. Then warming up completely. Healing.

But then, is there cowardice in the acknowledgment of fear? Is there cowardice in being glad that you lived?

I wanted nothing for free.Nothing came for free at our place anyway.

I think ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ is the mother of all cult books, because you can be in that cult and not even know you’re in it.

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

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

She walked down the basement steps. She saw an imaginary framed photo seep into the wall – a quiet-smiled secret. No more than a few meters, it was a long walk to the drop sheets...

Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.

… I felt something and vowed that if I ever got a girl I would treat her right and never be bad or dirty to her or hurt her, ever. I vowed it and had...

You should know it yourself- a young man is still a boy, and a boy sometimes has the right to be stubborn.

I don’t really know that this story has a whole lot of things happen in it. It doesn’t really. It’s just a record of how things were in my life during this last winter. I...

Fair enough. You want some of mine?

Why do they have windows? Is it to let a glimpse of the world in? Or for us to see out? Our own place is small perhaps, but when your old man is eaten up...

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...

Death’s Diary: 1942 -It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to just name a few. Forget the scythe, God damn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed...

As always, one of her books was next to her.

I told her I loved the howling sound of her harmonica. That seemed to be the limit of my courage that night, and even those spoken words had to struggle their way out of my...

…to swear with a ferocity that can only be described as a talent.

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.

I…” He struggled to answer. “When everything was quiet, I went up to the corridor and the curtain in the livingroom was open just a crack… I could see outside. I watched, only for a...

Awkward.That’s exactly how it was when we walked over to our sister and stood on each side of her, looking at her and feeling things and not knowing what to do.

The word maybe was beginning to annoy me, because the only thing that was fixed was that maybe would be with me forever.

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

Best friends one, and now we have almost nothing to say to each other. It was interesting, how he had joined those guys and I just stayed on my own. I didn’t like it or...

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...

It feels like spoken words, this bridge. I want it but fear it. God, I want so desperately to reach the other side – just like I want the words. I want my words to...

The thing is, I don’t even hate cops. To tell you the truth, I actually feel a little sorry for them.

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.

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

I find writing extremely difficult. I usually have to drag myself to my desk, mainly because I doubt myself. And it’s getting harder because I want to improve with every book.

He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.

for some reason, dying men always ask the question they know the answer to. perhaps it’s so they can die being right.

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...

Disbelief held me down inside my footsteps, making my body heavy but my heart wild.

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

He was waving. “Saukerl,” she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think that’s as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get.

Right. That’s twenty-two fifty.””Twenty-two fifty?” We can’t hide our exasperation.”Well, yeah – this is a classy joint, you know.””That’s obvious – the service is incredible.