How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"To tell the truth, I think I'm in love with Anne herself." Surprised by his unintended confession, he sat back, drained his coffee, rubbed his thighs, was aware of his toes tapping a rapid tattoo on the floor and his face blushing. Laughing to cover his confusion he said, "I do feel as if I know her better than anyone else. I mean, better than any of my family or friends." (4.108)
It's clear Jacob's got a special place in his heart for Anne Frank, and in case we didn't catch it before, he spells it out for us here. He feels such a deep connection with her, despite the fact that she's just available in a book.
Quote #2
And then Sam spoke for the first time since he was brought to us, saying in a clear high sing-song voice, "I have desired to go where springs not fail, to fields where flies no sharp and sided hail and a few lilies blow. And I have asked to be where no storms come, where the green swell is in the havens dumb, and out of the swing of the sea." (5.27)
Sam quotes from poetry to bring the others comfort and joy, but he also cries. So poignant, Shmoopsters.
Quote #3
When I heard them, I thought poor tortured Sam was uttering beautiful strange shell-shocked words. But Jacob knew they were a poem, which later he taught to me. As also one other, of which I shall tell you soon, that I have treasured throughout my life. (5.30)
This book of poetry becomes so important to Geertrui and Jacob when they are in the hiding place together, so we know the first time we see it is significant too. Her reaction to the poem Sam quotes is almost as touching as the poem itself.
Quote #4
On the wall in front of him Jacob saw a portrait of himself. In ancient oils. Head to waist. Angled towards his left. In rich and rusty browns. Except for the pale triangular familiar face. Life size. Which shone as if bathed in sunlight, framed within the shadowed enclosure of a monk's hood raised over the head. Eyes lowered and heavy-lidded. Wide mouth with fleshy bee-stung lower lip caught by the painter in a shy demure pleased-with-himself smile. And the feature which took most of Jacob's attention because he hated it so much, the long thick nose with its blunt and bulbous end. His father's nose. His grandfather's nose. The Todd nose. His sister Poppy and his brother Harry didn't have it. They had his mother's pretty, slim-line version. (8.3)
Can you imagine if you saw a Rembrandt painting of yourself? We have to admit: we're a little jealous. It seems like it would so cool, if also a little unnerving. Here we see Jacob moved by this near-mirror image of himself.
Quote #5
No picture he had ever seen had so absorbed and fixated him. He did not want to say this but made himself say yes. (8.21)
Jacob might love Anne Frank, but he's never felt this way about a painting before. Plus, Daan takes him to see Rembrandt's work as a way of sharing something deeply meaningful to himself with Jacob, which is pretty sweet in its own right—this is Daan opening up to Jacob.
Quote #6
"That's one reason why I love Rembrandt. His truthfulness. Always honest. Loves people and loves them just as they are. Never afraid of life as it is." (8.46)
Okay. Daan has just admitted that Rembrandt loved painting his son as something else—a monk or Paul the apostle—but that he loves how truth can still come out of the painting, even when someone is disguised as someone else. If that's not a cool trick, then we don't know what is.
Quote #7
"But in that case," he said, speaking the words as the thought came to him, "all art is love, because all art is about looking closely, isn't it. Looking closely at what's being painted.' 'The artist looking closely while he paints, the viewer looking closely at what has been painted. I agree. All true art, yes. Painting. Writing—literature—also. I think it is. And bad art is a failure to observe with complete attention. So, you see why I like the history of art. It's the study of how to observe life with complete attention. It's the history of love." (8.62)
In the gallery, Daan and Jacob decide that art is just like love, because the artist has to connect with the person s/he's creating. This is just about the most concise description we get of why art is so important to these guys: it's an expression of love.
Quote #8
"And you know how she wanted to be a famous writer? Well, she started rewriting her diary not long before she was captured because she heard a broadcast by one of the Dutch ministers. He said he wanted everyone to save letters and diaries and things like that, things they had written during the occupation, and after the war they would collect these together and put them into a national library so that in future people would be able to read what it was actually like for ordinary people during the war, and not just have to rely on books by professional historians." (14.57)
Jacob tells Tessel that he loves Anne Frank because she's just a regular old gal, just like us. It's not that he loves a story about the war or the history of it; he's invested in the personal experience of it all, from the perspective of a kid.
Quote #9
When he was not reading to me, we talked of books we loved. Jacob told me of English writers and books I had never heard of but which, after the war, I found and read for myself. And I told him of our Dutch writers I admired most. We sang to each other the popular songs we knew. (17.15)
Even with war raging outside their door, Geertrui and Jacob talk about literature. For them, it's a form of escape from their current world because it offers something more—something they can't find hiding the German-occupied Holland.
Quote #10
In the evening and at night in the hiding place with Jacob, the passion and tenderness of our love-making, the fun of our private talk and jokes, the consolation, the fantasy of our future together, the refreshment of the things we read and recited to each other from Sam's book (the only one we had in English). (17.24)
One book of poetry becomes a prized possession for the lovebirds, perhaps because they have nothing else. It's their escape, their emotions, and their passions for one another, all rolled into one. Plus it's a link to the outside world and the shared human experience.