Markus Zusak: Human

“The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. (Death)”

“I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skills is their capacity to escalate.”

“I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.”

“In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer - proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

“Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?”

“I'm just another stupid human.”

“You’re a human, you should understand self-obsession.”

“That was when the world wasn't so big and I could see everywhere. It was when my father was a hero and not a human.”

“It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding.”

“A halo surrounded the grim reaper nun, Sister Maria. (By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.)”

“So many humans.
So many colors.”

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

“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”

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

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

“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”