Every time you find something that doesn't work, you're a step closer to what does work.

The scrawled words of practice stood magnificently on the wall by the stairs, jagged and childlike and sweet. They looked on as both the hidden Jew and the girl slept, hand to shoulder. They breathed. German and Jewish lungs.

...and the night is so deep and dark that I wonder if the sun will ever come up.

When death captures me," the boy vowed, "he will feel my fist in his face." (31.26)

He's most likely robbing the bank as a paycheck on the world for winning the ugliness prize at his local fete three years running.

Make sure you live,' she said. 'As decent as you can. I know you'll make mistakes, but sometimes you're meant to, okay?

When a person's last response was Saumensch or Saukerl or Arschloch, you knew you had them beaten.