But then there are other moments.

Yes, I have seen a great many things in this world. I attend the greatest disasters and work for the greatest villains.

There's a multitude of stories (a mere handful, as I have previously suggested) that I allow to distract me as I work, just as the colors do. I pick them up in the unluckiest, unlikeliest places and I make sure to remember them as I go about my work. The Book Thief is one such story.

The old woman was astonished. She took it in her hand and said, "Is this really it?"

When I traveled to Sydney and took Liesel away, I was finally able to do something I'd been waiting on for a long time. I put her down and we walked along Anzac Avenue, near the soccer field, and I pulled a dusty black book from my pocket.

With great trepidation, she opened The Book Thief and turned the pages. "I can't believe…" Even though the text had faded, she was able to read her words. The fingers of her soul touched the story that was written so long ago in her Himmel Street basement.

I nodded.

And at that point, there was a great pause.

"Could you understand it?"

"Did you read it?" she asked, but she did not look at me. Her eyes were fixed to the words.

She sat down on the curb, and I joined her.

None of those things, however, came out of my mouth.

A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR

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.

All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I truly know. I said it to the book thief and I say it now to you.

A few cars drove by, each way. Their drivers were Hitlers and Hubermanns, and Maxes, killers, Dillers, and Steiners…

I am haunted by humans.

I nodded. "Many times."