in the trees this afternoon, he was a giver of bread and teddy bears.

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.

Self-esteem wasn't the issue for my parents or their parents. Survival was their primary goal.

Because when I kiss you, I want yours to be the first... and last lips I ever kiss.

Sometimes I think humans have a common sense that completely defies logic.

While we would not want to attribute every extreme weather event to climate change - the pattern is building and the costs are rising - the human costs and the financial costs

Few of us have vitality enough to make any of our instincts imperious.

I am the most unselfish chef in Britain today.

The modern campus is deeply obsessed by race and gender, and not much else.

Actually, it's great to play with someone who tries to come up with interesting drum beats because it pushes the music in different directions.

I was born in Northern Ireland in 1951. I lived most of my life there until 1986 or 1987

Pursuits become habits. [Lat., Abeunt studia in mores.]