Clearly," said Arthur,"you're an idiot- but you're our kind of idiot. Come on.

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.

… it was raining on Himmel Street when the world ended for Liesel Meminger. The sky was dripping. Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn’t quite managed.

Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.

Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.

Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.

I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there.

Please, trust me, I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

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

Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.

If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter.

How can we manage to illuminate the pathos of our lives?

They would be shocked if they could see the other women in London: automechanics with grease in their hair, fisherwomen in from te coast with tatooed arms.

My country has been very good to me I must be good to my country.

One year I hit .291 and had to take a salary cut. If you hit .291 today, you'd own the franchise.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm a novelist right now. There is no definite career reason why I became a writer. Something happened, and I became a writer. And now I'm a successful writer.

It's easier to be creative if you've got other people to play with.

All the support from all my friends, All my family over the years, I appreciate it.

As a kid, I got three meals a day. Oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal.

I want to see as many black professionals as possible.

When you trust your readers, you're hoping they will see what you see. Not every book is for every person.