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Markus Zusak Quotes
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Markus Frank Zusak is an Australian writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger , two novels for young adults which have been international best-sellers. He won the annual Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2014 for his contributions to young-adult literature published in the US.

✵ 23. June 1975  •  Other names Markus Frank Zusak, مارکوس زوساک
Markus Zusak photo
Markus Zusak: 214 quotes18 likes

Markus Zusak Quotes

“You might well ask just what the hell he was thinking. The answer is, probably nothing at all. He'd probably say he was exercising his God-given right to stupidity.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“They'd been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Clearly," said Arthur,"you're an idiot- but you're our kind of idiot. Come on.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“If I ever leave this place-
I'll make sure I'm better HERE first.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“And they would all smile at the beauty of destruction.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“He killed himself for wanting to live.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. find yourself a mirror while I continue.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“First the colours.
Then the humans.
That’s usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Oh, come on, Arthur."
"I don't want to hear it, Andy."
"Jesus Christ"
"He doesn't want to hear it, either.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“She even touches Jimmy's face on the photos, and I see what it is to love someone like Milla loved that man. Her fingertips are made of love.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies.
I've seen millions of them.
I've seen more eclipses than I care to remember”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“There were stars. They burned my eyes.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“It was one of those moments of perfect tiredness, of having conquered not only the work at hand, but the night who had blocked the way.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“I watch the beauty for as long as I can, then turn and face the rest of it.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“The bittersweetness of uncertainty: To win or to lose.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“It's not the place, I think. It's the people. We'd have all been the same anywhere else.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“You're far from this. This story is just another few hundred pages of your mind.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“Ed?" Ritchie says later. We're still standing in the water. "There's only one thing I want."
"What's that, Ritchie?"
His answer is simple.
"To want.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“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 book Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Source: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Better that we leave the paint behind," Hans told her, "than ever forget the music.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“The night is alive with stars, and when I lie down and look up, I get lost up there. I feel like I’m falling, but upward, into the abyss of sky above me.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“The injury of words.
Yes, the brutality of words.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. Each half was glowing, and beating under all that white.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“My heart applauds inside my ears, first like a roaring crowd, then slows and slows until it's a solitary person, clapping with unbridled sarcasm.
Clap. Clap.
Clap.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Mistakes, mistakes, it's all I seem capable of at times.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“How 'bout a kiss,?" -- Rudy Steiner”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“The Germans in basements were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower. For those people, life was still achievable.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“The orange flames waved at the crowd as paper and print dissolved inside them. Burning words were torn from their sentences.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“… it was raining on Himmel Street when the world ended for Liesel Meminger.
The sky was dripping.
Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn’t quite managed.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“I’m Angelina,” she says. “Are you here to save us?” I can see a tiny spark of hope awaken in her eyes.
“You’re right, Angelina - I’m here to save you.”
“Can you? Really?”
“I’ll try,” I say and the girl smiles.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.
Source: The Book Thief

“Yes, I know it.
In the darkness of my dark beating heart,
I know. He'd have loved it alright.
You see?
Even Death Has A Heart.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“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 book Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Source: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“THE LAST WORDS OF MAX VANDENBURG: You've done enough.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

The Book Thief

“Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“The bombs were coming-and so was I.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“When he moves, a streetlight stabs him, and the words flow out like blood.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“Tears were frozen to the book theif's face.”

Markus Zusak

“There are moments when you can only stand and stare, watching the world forget you as you remove yourself from it - when you overcome it and cease to exist as the person you were.”

Markus Zusak

Source: Getting the Girl

“I'm asking you, I'm begging you, could you please shut your mouth for just five minutes?"
You can imagine the reaction. They ended up in the basement.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“The human child – so much cannier at times than the stupefyingly ponderous adult.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“July 24, 6:03 A. M.
The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff…
Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing.
He killed himself for wanting to live.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment.
'There were stars,' He said. 'They burned my eyes.’
… from a Himmel street window, he wrote, the stars set fire to my eyes.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“It's about glowing lights and small things that are big.”

Markus Zusak

Source: I Am the Messenger

“I can promise you that the world is a factory.  The sun stirs it, the humans rule it.  And I remain.  I carry them away.- spoken by death”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief