Quotes from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“It's funny, don't you think, how time seems to do a lot of things? It flies, it tells, and worst of all, it runs out.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or to forget? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives?”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“And then there's the sickness I feel from looking at legs I can't touch, or at lips that don't smile at me. Or hips that don't reach for me. And hearts that don't beat for me.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“It makes me wonder, Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or forget things? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives? I don't know.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“The city buildings in the distance are holding up the sky, it seems.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“A fighter can be a winner, but that doesn't make a winner a fighter.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“I'm gonna hunt my life down and grab it.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“It’s funny, don’t you think, how time seems to do a lot of things? It flies, it tells, and worst of all, it runs out.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“... because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it. It's the ones in between that test you. They're the ones that bring questions with them.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“See, Cameron. The only things I care about in this life are me, you, Mum, Dad, Steve and Sarah. And maybe Miffy. The rest of the world means nothing to me. The rest of the world can rot.'
Am I like that too?'
You? No way.' There's a slight gap in his words. 'And that's your problem. You care about everything.'
He's right.
I do.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“I just know that right now, we want to be proud. For once. We want to take the struggle and rise above it. We want to frame it, live it, survive it. We want to put it in our mouths and taste it and never forget it, because it makes us strong.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“We are wolves, which are wild dogs, and this is our place in the city. We are small and our house is small on our small urban street. We can see the city and the train line and it's beautiful in its own dangerous way. Dangerous because it's shared and taken and fought for.
That's the best way I can put it, and thinking about it, when I walk past the tiny houses on our street, I wonder about the stories inside them. I wonder hard, because houses must have walls and rooftops for a reason. My only query is the windows. Why do they have windows? Is it to let a glimpse of the world in? Or for us to see out?”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“I say, 'Don't lose your heart, Rube.'
And very clearly, without moving, my brother answers me.
He says, 'I'm not tryin' to lose it, Cam. I'm tryin' to find it.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“As we walk back, it feels like the city is engulfing us. Adrenalin still pours through our veins. Sparks flow through to our fingers. We've still been running in the mornings, but the city's different then. It's filled with hope and with bristles of winter sunshine. In the evening, it's like it dies, waiting to be born again the next morning.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Smile with instinct, then lick your wounds in the darkest of dark corners. Trace the scars back to your own fingers and remember them.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Time will tell, I suppose, or at least, these pages will.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the beginning that you're going to win. It's the ones in between that test you. They're the ones that bring questions with them.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“The only people we want to blame are ourselves, because it will be ourselves that we rely upon.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“It's the sound of my breathing that gets me, pouring down into my lungs and then tripping back up my throat.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“How'd it feel?" Rube asked himself. "I don't know exactly, but it made me want to howl.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“They're brainless girls, otherwise they wouldn't be seen dead here. They're pretty, with ugly, appealing smiles and conversations we can't hear. They breathe smoke and blow it out, and words drop from their mouths and get crushed to the floor. Or they get discarded, just to glow with warmth for a moment, for someone else to tread on later.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“He's been to the brink and come back. I guess when you lose your pride, even for just a moment, you realise how much it means to you.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“When I’m there, Rube’s eyes fire into mine. Make sure you get up, they tell me, and I nod, then jump up. The jacket’s off. My skin’s warm. My wolfish hair sticks up as always, nice and thick. I’m ready now. I’m ready to keep standing up, no matter what, I’m ready to believe that I welcome the pain and that I want it so much that I will look for it. I will seek it out. I’ll run to it and throw myself into it. I’ll stand in front of it in blind terror and let it beat me down and down till my courage hangs off me in rags. Then it will dismantle me and stand me up naked, beat me some more and my slaughter-blood will fly from my mouth and the pain will drink it, feel it, steal it and conceal it in the pockets of its guts and it will taste me. It will just keep standing me up, and I won’t let it know. I won’t tell it that I feel it. I won’t give it the satisfaction. No, the pain will have to kill me.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“We smell the impact of traffic and humans. Humans and traffic. Back and forth. We taste our moment, swallowing it, knowing it. We feel our nerves twitching inside our stomaches, lunging at our skin from beneath.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Around us I can sniff out a savagery in the noisy southern air. It knifes it's way into my nose, but I do not bleed blood. It's fear I bleed, and it gushes out over my lip. I wipe it away, in a hurry.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Our own place is mall perhaps, but when your old man is eaten by his own shadow, you realise that maybe in every house, something so savage and sad and brilliant is standing up, without the world even seeing it.
Maybe that's what these pages of words are about:
Bringing the world to the window.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Why do they have windows? Is it to let a glimpse of the world in? Or for us to see out? Our own place is small perhaps, but when your old man is eaten up by his own shadow, you realize maybe that in every house, something so savage and sad and brilliant is standing up, without the world even seeing it.
Maybe that's what these pages of words are about.
Bringing the world to the window.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“The thing is, I don't even hate cops. To tell you the truth, I actually feel a little sorry for them.”
― Markus Zusak, quote from Fighting Ruben Wolfe

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Popular quotes

“Dintre toate lipsurile studentului, cea dintîi şi cea mai de seamă era fără îndoială lipsa de respect faţă de tatăl lui. De altfel şi bătrînul era adesea plicticos de n-avea pereche. In primul rînd era peste măsură de curios, în al doilea rînd nu-l lăsa să înveţe, pentru că trăncănea într-una şi punea întrebări prosteşti — lipsite cu totul de temei şi, în cele din urmă, mai venea uneori şi beat. Fiul îşi dezvăţa încetul cu încetul părintele de aceste păcate, adică de dorinţa de a-şi vîrî nasul pretutindeni şi de a trăncăni verzi şi uscate, şi, în sfîrşit, izbuti să-l facă pe bătrîn să-l asculte ca pe un oracol şi să nu deschidă gura fără îngăduinţa lui. Bietul bătrîn nu mai contenea să se minuneze şi să se bucure de Petenka al lui (aşa-i spunea el). Cînd venea să-l vadă, era întotdeauna sfios şi îngrijorat, neştiind pesemne cum o să-l primească fiul şi nu îndrăznea multă vreme să-i calce pragul; dacă mă nimerea pe mine prin apropiere, mă descosea pe puţin vreo douăzeci de minute, întrebîndu-mă cum e cu Petenka al lui? Dacă-i sănătos, în ce ape se scaldă şi dacă nu lucrează cumva la ceva cu totul deosebit ? Şi ce anume face : scrie, citeşte sau cugetă ? Dacă-l îmbărbătam şi-l linişteam îndeajuns, bătrînul îşi lua în cele din urmă inima în dinţi şi intra tiptil-tiptil, deschizînd încetinel uşa, prin care vîra mai întîi capul; dacă vedea că băiatul lui nu se supără şi-i face un semn, trecea binişor în odaie, îşi lepăda paltonaşul şi pălăria — veşnic boţită, găurită şi cu marginile rupte — le atîrna în cuier, cu multă băgare de seamă şi fără zgomot; apoi se aşeza într-un colţ, pe scaun, tot atît de încetişor şi-l mînea din ochi pe Petenka al lui, prinzîndu-i toate mişcările şi căutînd să ghicească în ce toane e. Dacă Petenka nu era cît de cît în apele lui şi bătrînul o vedea, se ridica numaidecît şi spunea : «Eu, Petenka, numai aşa... am trecut doar pentru o clipă. Să vezi... am fost departe şi dacă am trecut pe aici, am intrat să mă odihnesc». Apoi îşi lua tăcut şi supus paltonaşul şi pălăria ponosită, deschidea iar uşa fără zgomot şi pleca, cu un zîmbet silit, ca să înăbuşe durerea strînsă în suflet şi să nu i-o arate fiului. Dar cînd se-ntîmpla ca fiul să-şi primească bine tatăl, acesta nu mai ştia ce să facă de bucurie. Mulţumirea i se citea pe faţă, în purtări, în mişcări. De cîte ori îi vorbea băiatul, bătrînul se sălta puţin de pe scaun şi-i răspundea încet, slugarnic, aproape cu evlavie, căutînd să întrebuinţeze vorbele cele mai alese, adică cele mai caraghioase. Dar, hotărît lucru, vorbirea frumoasă nu prea era de el: se încurca şi se fîstîcea în aşa hal, că nu ştia ce să mai facă cu mîinile şi ce să se facă el singur, şi multă vreme după ce isprăvea, mai bolborosea pentru el răspunsul cuvenit, căutînd parcă să-şi îndrepte greşeala. Dacă izbutea să răspundă cum trebuie, bătrînul se umfla în pene, îşi îndrepta pe rînd jiletca, cravata şi haina şi lua înfăţişarea unui om care-şi cunoaşte preţul. Uneori prindea atîta curaj, îndrăzneala lui mergea atît de departe, că se ridica încet de pe scaun, se apropia de raftul cu cărţi, îşi alegea o carte şi citea pe loc cîte ceva, aşa, la nimereală. Toate astea le făcea cu un sînge rece şi o nepăsare prefăcută, de parcă ar fi avut libertatea să umble întotdeauna în voie prin cărţile fiului său, de parcă ar fi fost obişnuit de cînd lumea cu vorba mîngîietoare a acestuia. Eu însă am văzut odată cu ochii mei cum s-a speriat bietul de el, cînd Pokrovski l-a rugat să nu mai pună mîna pe cărţi. Bătrînul s-a fîstîcit, s-a grăbit, a pus cartea de-a-ndoaselea, apoi a dat să-şi îndrepte greşeala, a întors-o, dar a băgat-o cu cotorul înăuntru; şi toate astea le făcea zîmbind, înroşindu-se şi căutînd să şteargă, cum se pricepea mai bine, urmele fărădelegii.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Poor Folk

“Look at me, Conan!" She threw wide her arms. "I am Belit, queen of the black coast. Oh, tiger of the North, you are cold as the snowy mountains which bred you. Take me and crush me with your fierce love! Go with me to the ends of the earth and the ends of the sea! I am a queen by fire and steel and slaughter–be thou my king!”
― Robert E. Howard, quote from Conan of Cimmeria

“I heard an old man speak once, someone who had been sober for fifty years, a very prominent doctor. He said that he’d finally figured out a few years ago that his profound sense of control, in the world and over his life, is another addiction and a total illusion. He said that when he sees little kids sitting in the back seat of cars, in those car seats that have steering wheels, with grim expressions of concentration on their faces, clearly convinced that their efforts are causing the car to do whatever it is doing, he thinks of himself and his relationship with God: God who drives along silently, gently amused, in the real driver's seat.”
― Anne Lamott, quote from Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

“She had what the Councillor knew, in the technical language of the ballet, as "ballon", a lightness that is not only the negation of weight, but which actually seems to carry upwards and make for flight, and which is rarely found in thin dancers - as if the matter itself had here become lighter than air, so that the more there is of it the better it works.”
― Isak Dinesen, quote from Seven Gothic Tales

“The person becomes attached to the vehicle and then fails to see all the other investment vehicles and procedures available.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki, quote from Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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