The collection / 262 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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262 results · Page 10 of 11Play this collection ▷

01c. 1975 AD

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

Markus Zusak / quote

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02c. 1975 AD

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 his life? Who was there to soothe him as life's rug was snatched from under his sleeping feet?

Markus Zusak / quote

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03c. 1975 AD

... because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it. It's the ones in between that test you. They're the ones that bring questions with them.

Markus Zusak / quote

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04c. 1975 AD

And you're Cameron Wolfe. That' gotta start meaning somethin' boy. That's gotta start churnin' inside us, making us wanna be someone for those names, and not just another couple of guys who amounted to nothin' but what people said we would. No way. We're getting' out of that. We have to. We're gonna crawl and moan and fight and bite and bark at anything that gets in our way or tries to hunt us down and shoot us. All right?

Markus Zusak / quote

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05c. 1975 AD

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 by his own shadow, you realize maybe that in every house, something so savage and sad and brilliant is standing up, without the world even seeing it. Maybe that's what these pages of words are about. Bringing the world to the window.

Markus Zusak / quote

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06c. 1975 AD

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.

Markus Zusak / quote

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07c. 1975 AD

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. Smile stubborn. Smile with instinct, then lick your wounds in the darkest of corners. Trace the scars back to your own fingers and remember them.

Markus Zusak / quote

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08c. 1975 AD

It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.

Markus Zusak / quote

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09c. 1975 AD

I don't leave a note.There's nothing else to do. At first, I'd wanted to write Merry Christmas on the box somewhere, but I decide against it. This isn't about words.It's about glowing lights and small things that are big.

Markus Zusak / quote

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10c. 1975 AD

An eleven-year-old girl is many things, but she is not stupid.

Markus Zusak / quote

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11c. 1975 AD

The dog next-door had settled down, and the neighbourhood seemed stunned by this event occurring in our backyard. It was like it could sense it. It could sense some form of tragedy and helplessness being played out, and to tell you the truth, it all surprised me. I was so used to things just going on, oblivious and ignorant to all feeling.

Markus Zusak / quote

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12c. 1975 AD

If someone wanted to be a runner, you don't tell them to think about running, you tell them to run. And the same simple idea applies to writing, I hope.

Markus Zusak / quote

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13c. 1975 AD

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. They know you would do the same for them.

Markus Zusak / quote

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14c. 1975 AD

Rudy handed it back. "Speaking of which, I think we're both slightly in for it when we get home. You especially.""Why me?""You know- your mama.""What about her?" Liesel was exercising the blatant right of every person who's ever belonged to a family. 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.

Markus Zusak / quote

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15c. 1975 AD

Shadows of cloud lurked in the water, like holes the sun forgot about.

Markus Zusak / quote

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16c. 1975 AD

The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it's stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun is like a yellow hole..." Max, at that moment, knew that only a child could have given him a weather report like that. On the wall, he painted a long, tightly knotted rope with a dripping yellow sun at the end of it, as if you could dive right into it. On the ropy cloud, he drew two figures-a thin girl and a withering Jew-and they were walking, arms balanced, toward that dripping sun.

Markus Zusak / quote

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17c. 1975 AD

You might well ask just what the hell he was thinking. The answer is, probably nothing at all.He'd probably say he was exercising his God-given right to stupidity.

Markus Zusak / quote

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18c. 1975 AD

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

Markus Zusak / quote

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19c. 1975 AD

The moon was sewn into the sky that night

Markus Zusak / quote

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20c. 1975 AD

You don't always get what you wish for. Especially in Nazi Germany

Markus Zusak / quote

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21c. 1975 AD

The city buildings in the distance are holding up the sky, it seems.

Markus Zusak / quote

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22c. 1975 AD

My mouth opened.It happened.Yes, with my head thrown into the sky, I started howling.Arms stretched out next to me, I howled, and everything came out of me. Visions pored up my throat and past voices surrounded me. The sky listened. The city didn't. I didn't care. All I cared about was that I was howling so that I could hear my voice and so I would remember that the boy had intensity and something to offer. I howled, oh, so loud and desperate, telling a world that I was here and I wouldn't lie down.

Markus Zusak / quote

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23c. 1975 AD

The question is, what colour will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?

Markus Zusak / quote

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24c. 1975 AD

It's lucky I was there. Then again, who am I kidding? I'm in most places at least once, and in 1943, I was just about everywhere.

Markus Zusak / quote

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