I like to tell students, 'I didn't burst on to the literary scene.' I'm never good at things at the beginning. I was terrible at the start. I need to work and work.

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.

The truth is that most of us are not our best selves.

Oh, I love hugging. I wish I was an octopus, so I could hug 10 people at a time!

What you are alone is what you are.

When all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so.

I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals.

If you look back at past administrations, they're probably a little bit behind where former President George W. Bush was.

Temperament, like liberty, is important despite how many crimes are committed in its name.

It is commonly seene by experience, that excellent memories do rather accompany weake judgements.

For the first time the peasant has seen real freedom - freedom to eat his bread, freedom from starvation.

Honor the physical temple that houses you by eating healthfully, exercising, listening to your body's needs and treating it with dignity and love.