I traveled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity.

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

I always marvel at the humans' ability to keep going. They always manage to stagger on even with tears streaming down their faces.

The pages and the words are my world, spread out before your eyes and for your hand to touch. Vaguely, I can see you face looking down into me, as I look back. Do you see my eyes?

At first, all is black and white. Black on white. That's where I'm walking, through pages. These pages. Sometimes it gets so that I have one foot in the pages and the words, and the other in what they speak of.

One day, Liesel.' he said, 'you'll be dying to kiss me.

The human child – so much cannier at times than the stupefyingly ponderous adult.