It's a lot easier, she realized, to be on the verge of something than to actually be it. This would still take time.

Liesel shrugged away entirely from the crowd and entered the tide of Jews, weaving through them till she grabbed hold of his arm with her left hand. His face fell on her. It reached down as she tripped, and the Jew,the nasty Jew, helped her up. It took all of his strength.

Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.

The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.

There were not many people who could say that their education had been paid for with cigarettes.

A book floated down the Amper River. A boy jumped in, caught up to it, and held it in his right hand. He grinned. He stood waist-deep in the icy, Decemberish water. “How about a kiss, Saumensch?” he said.

I'm having bigger problems when I'm writing.