This character appears in 68 books.
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The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Death: The narrator of the story. Death is sympathetic to humans and dislikes all of the despair and destruction that results from their hatred and war. He comments on the thoughts, morals, and actions of humanity throughout the story while keeping an eye on Liesel.
Memorable Quotes by Death:
“A last note from your narrator: I am haunted by humans.”
“You could argue that Liesel Meminger had it easy. She did have it easy compared to Max Vandenburg. Certainly, her brother practically died in her arms. Her mother abandoned her. But anything was better than being a Jew.”
“Here is a small fact: You are going to die.”
“Her nerves licked her palms.”
“So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”
“I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They're running at me.”
“'When death captures me,' the boy vowed, 'he will feel my fist on his face.' Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes. I like that a lot.”
“By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.”
“I do not carry a sickle or a scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold. And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.”
“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”
“For some reason, dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. Perhaps it's so they can die being right.”
“He was hanging from one of the rafters in a laundry up near Frau Diller's. Another human pendulum. Another clock, stopped.”
“Humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”
“The bombs were coming - and so was I.”
“Those images were the world, and it stewed in her as she sat with the lovely books and their manicured titles. It brewed in her as she eyed the pages full to the brims of their bellies with paragraphs and words.”
“They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.”
“It amazes me, what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing, searching, finding.”
“Liesel rushed over. She crouched above him. Kiss him, Liesel, kiss him.”
“On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy was like robbery- so much life, so much to live for- yet somehow I'm certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. He'd have cried and turned and smiled, if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees next to his decimated body. He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips. Yes, I know it. In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it, all right. You see? Even death has a heart.”
“Rudy did nothing; he said nothing. When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.”
“It's just a small story really, about, among other things: A girl, Some words, An accordionist, Some fanatical Germans, A Jewish fist fighter, And quite a lot of thievery...”
“Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”
“Silence was not quiet or calm, and it was not peace.”
“So many humans, so many colors.”
“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.”
“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.”
“They are frightened, no question, but they were not afraid of me. It was a fear of messing up and having to face themselves again, and facing the world, and the likes of you.”
“The ones who rise up and say,"I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come."”
“Then again, who am I kidding? I'm in most places at least once , and in 1943, I was just about everywhere.”
“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
“Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.”
“One opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.”
“Its also worthy of mention that every pattern has at least one small bias, and one day it will tip itself over, or fall from one page to another.”
“Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German.”
“Every second word was either saumensch or saukerl or arschloch. For people who aren’t familiar with these words, I should explain. Sau, of course, refers to pigs. In the case of Saumensch, it serves to castigate, berate or plain humiliate a female. Sukerl is for a male. Arschloch can be translated directly into arsehole.”
“I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.”
“Not only did Max have less than a chance of survival than everyone else, but would die completely alone.”
“When she came to write her story, she would wonder exactly when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.”
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Good Omens
The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Death: Come now, is a description really necessary?
Memorable Quotes by Death:
“There was a tearing sound. Death's robe split and his wings unfolded. Angel's wings. But not of feathers. They were wings of night, wings that were shapes cut through the matter of creation into the darkness underneath, in which a few distant lights glimmered, lights that may have been stars or may have been something entirely else. BUT I, he said, AM NOT LIKE THEM. I AM AZRAEL, CREATED TO BE CREATION'S SHADOW. YOU CANNOT DESTROY ME. THAT WOULD DESTROY THE WORLD.”
“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH”
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Heritage of Shannara: Book 4The Talismans of Shannara
by Terry Brooks
Death: A Shadowen posing as one of the Four Horsemen and sent to Paranor to keep Walker trapped inside, it was destroyed by the magics of Walker Boh and Cogline's black powder.
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The Sandman: Book 7Brief Lives
by Neil Gaiman
Memorable Quotes by Death:
“You lived what anybody gets, Bernie. You got a lifetime.”
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The Sandman: Book 4Season of Mists
by Neil Gaiman
Death: Dream's sister. Believes that Dream wronged Nada when he sent her to Hell.
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Hogfather
by Terry Pratchett
Death: Susan's grandfather.
Memorable Quotes by Death:
“Mind you, the stuff for the girls was just as depressing. It seemed to be nearly all horses. Most of them were grinning. Horses, Death felt, shouldn't grin. Any horse that was grinning was planning something.”
“MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF.”
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