"Perhaps that is what it means to be a father-to teach your child to live without you."

"I love you madly, irrationally, infinitely."

"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

"And I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."