A DEFINITION NOT FOUNDIN THE DICTIONARYNot leaving: an act of trust and love,often deciphered by children

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...

Steve, on the other hand, has plenty of friends, but he wouldn’t bleed for any of them, because he wouldn’t trust them to bleed for him. In that way he’s just as alone as me.

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.

All my friends seem to be smart arses. Don’t ask me why. Like many things, it is what it is.

Sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after you’ve finished just to stay near it.

I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair and surprise.

Something I’d like to be perfect at? … Loving you,’ I said. The words climbed from my mouth. ‘I’d want to be perfect at loving you.

If you can’t imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.

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...

The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.

The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.

That paper–it sits there, open at the employment section. It sits there like a war, and each small advertisement is another trench for a person to dive into. To hope and fight in.

I’ve wandered through the real world, and written myself through the darkness of the streets inside me. I see people walking through the city and wonder where they’ve been, and what the moments of their...

If I ever leave this place-I’ll make sure I’m better HERE first.

The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help. They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip- the...

Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.

I love the laughter of this night. Our footsteps run, and I don’t want them to end. I want to run and laugh and feel like this forever. I want to avoid any awkward moment...

On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy Steiner was robbery–so much life, so much to live for–yet somehow, I’m certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the...

That’s typically what writers do; we just sit around complaining most of the time. And the better things are going, the more they complain.

It’s much easier . . . to be on the verge of something than to actually be it. This would still take time.

They’re brainless girls, otherwise they wouldn’t be seen dead here. They’re pretty, with ugly, appealing smiles and conversations we can’t hear. They breathe smoke and blow it out, and words drop from their mouths and...

It feels nice to emerge from the lies.

It could be worse. I could be you.

I am haunted by humans.

I had many boxing matches with my brother in the backyard when we were younger, and I guess while other people abhor boxing for its brutality, I also have to admire anyone who climbs into...

She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows...

And it would show me, once again, that one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.

I could smell something. Fear.I could taste it now.It tasted like blood in my mouth, and I could feel it slide through me and open me up when I saw him …

the threat of Jewish competition was taken away, but so were the Jewish customers

See, I was never a guy who had a whole heap of friends to belong to. Besides Greg Fienni, I never really had friends. I kind of stayed on my own. I hated it, but...

Hair the color of lemons,'” Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. “You told him about me?”At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or...

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...

Había una vez un hombre bajito y extraño que decidió tres cosas importantes acerca de su vida:1. Que se haría la raya del pelo en el lado contrario a todos los demás.2. Que se dejaría...

If nothing else, they died fast and they were warm. The boy from the plane, I thought. The one with the teddy bear. Where was Rudy’s confort? Where was someone to alleviate this robbery of...

Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. “I’m okay” we say. “I’m alright”. But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can’t get it off. That’s when you realize that sometimes it isn’t even...

For two days I went about my business. I travelled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity.

I guess that’s the beauty of books. When they finish they don’t really finish.

The color of defeat chokes her pupils, even though her nod and smile and uncomfortable sitting motion on the couch indicate that she is not finished yet. She will carry on, like all of us....

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.

There are pieces of me on the ground.

Not a beauty queen. Not one of those. You know the ones. She was real.

I think to be writer you have to enjoy being alone. I was a loner as a teenager and was always drawn to characters in books and films who were at the fringes.

Steadily, the room shrank, till the book thief could touch the shelves within a few small steps. She ran the back of her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernails...

A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTHI do not carry a sickle or scythe.I only wear a hooded black robe when it’s cold.And I don’t have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me...

You should give it to Max, Liesel. See if you can leave it on the bedside table, like all the other things.” Liesel watched him as if he’d gone insane. “How, though?” Lightly, he tapped...

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...

I told her about school and how I sat on a wall there and felt stories and words move through me …

You’ll have days of complete lack of faith in your abilities. But you have to keep coming back. That’s when you know you’re a writer – when you take the failures and appear at the...

One day, Liesel.’ he said, ‘you’ll be dying to kiss me.