The Book Thief Events Quotes

Chapter 1

You are going to die. (1.6)

Chapter 2

I am a result. (2.3)

Chapter 3

From the toolbox the boy took out, of all things, a teddy bear. He reached in through the torn windshield and placed it on the pilot's chest. (3.9, 3.10)

Chapter 4

The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places it was burned. There were black crumbs and pepper, streaked across the redness. (4.1)

Chapter 5

The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career. (5.119)

Chapter 6

Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father's eyes. They were made of kindness, and silver. […] Upon seeing those eyes, understood that Hans Hubermann was worth a lot. (6.22)

Chapter 7

Then they discovered she couldn't read or write. (7.25)

Chapter 8

He was not the junior misogynistic type of boy at all. (8.23)

Chapter 9

As long as both she and Rudy lived, she would never kiss that miserable, filthy Saukerl. (9.9)

Chapter 10

Then he read the title, with concentration, aloud: "The Grave Digger's Handbook." (10.17)

Chapter 12

That was one war started. Liesel would soon be in another. (12.15, 16)

Chapter 13

In fact, on April 20 – the Führer's birthday – when she snatched a book from beneath a steaming pile of ashes, Liesel was a girl made of darkness. (13.8)

Chapter 16

"You know, Liesel? I nearly wrote you a reply and signed your mother's name. […] But I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself." (16.1)

Chapter 17

"What trash is this girl reading? She should be reading Mein Kampf." (17.31)

Chapter 18

There was […] the matter of the forty million people I picked up by the time the whole thing was finished […]. (18.35)

Chapter 19

"Did the Führer take her away?" (19.15)

Chapter 21

Beneath her shirt, a book was eating her up. (21.56)

Chapter 22

That such a room existed! (22.57).

Chapter 23

"Sorry it's taken so long. I think people have been watching me. And the man with the identity card took longer than I thought […]." (23.19)

Chapter 24

[…] but it was the stealing that cemented their friendship completely. […] it was driven by one inescapable force – Rudy's hunger. The boy was permanently dying for something to e...

Chapter 26

Hang on a second, he was German. Or more to the point, he had been. (26.20)

Chapter 28

How could he show up and ask people to risk their lives for him? How could he be so selfish? (28.21)

Chapter 29

"Do you still play the accordion?" (29.4)

Chapter 30

Max Vandenburg […] closed his eyes and drooped a little further into safety. The very idea of it was ludicrous, but he accepted it nonetheless. (30.5)

Chapter 31

"Bring nothing," Walter said. "Just what you're wearing. I'll give you the rest." (31.74)

Chapter 33

"When a Jew shows up at your place of residence in the early hours of the morning, in the very birthplace of Nazism, you're likely to experience extreme levels of discomfort. Anxiety, disbelief, pa...

Chapter 35

Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. On her birthday it was she who gave a gift to me. (35.21)

Chapter 37

He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb hit lips. (37.11)

Chapter 38

In the basement of 33 Himmel Street, Max Vandenburg could feel the fists of the entire nation. One by one they climbed into the ring and beat him down. (38.112)

Chapter 39

She also realized it was most likely these sodden days at the Hitler Youth that fed his, and subsequently her own, desire for crime. (39.82)

Chapter 44

He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them. (44.42)

Chapter 50

Max Vandenburg sat beneath the steps, holding his rusty scissors like a knife. (50.146)

Chapter 52

For me, the sky was the color of Jews. (52.3)

Chapter 54

Liesel Meminger was a criminal. But not because she'd stolen a handful of books through an open window. (54.134)

Chapter 55

From a Himmel Street window, he wrote, the stars set fire to my eyes. (55.78)

Chapter 56

Out of respect, the adults kept everyone quiet, and Liesel finished chapter one of The Whistler. (56.30)

Chapter 58

[…] Hans Hubermann held his hand out and presented a piece of bread […]. (58.62)

Chapter 60

They should have come by now and swept through the house, looking for any evidence of Jew loving or treason, but it appeared that Max had left for no reason at all. He could have been asleep in the...

Chapter 63

On Friday, a statement arrived to say that Hans Hubermann was being drafted into the German army. (63.13)

Chapter 70

It kills me sometimes, how people die. (70.7)

Chapter 71

A bandaged hand fell out of his coat sleeve and cherries of blood were seeping through the wrapping. (71.2)

Chapter 77

In short, Himmel Street was flattened. (77.8)

Chapter 79

He let his mouth kiss her palm. "Yes, Liesel, it's me," and he held the girls hand in his face and cried onto her fingers. (79.51)

Chapter 80

"'Is it really you,' the young man asked […]. Is it from your cheek that I took the seed?'" (80.44)

Chapter 82

The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing. (82.28)

Chapter 84

She was a Jew feeder without a question in the world on that man's first night in Molching. She was an arm reacher, deep into a mattress, to deliver a sketchbook to a teenage girl. (84.25)

Chapter 87

They hugged and cried and fell on the floor. (87.4)

Chapter 88

The fingers of her soul touched the story that was written so long ago in her Himmel Street basement. (88.7)