Top 500 Markus Zusak Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “But now those thoughts weren’t thoughts at all, they were clouds of landed punches, and every one fell true.”

— Markus Zusak

452. “At the end of the day, it’s still up to you, and that’s the beauty of books. In so many ways, they never really end.”

— Markus Zusak

453. “The dilemma, of course, was the communism. A single great idea. A thousand limits and flaws. Growing up, Penelope never noticed. What child ever does? There was nothing to compare it to.”

— Markus Zusak

454. “Marv glaubt an so etwas, und ich weiss, dass ich das nicht geringschaetzen sollte. Es ist, wie es ist.”

— Markus Zusak

455. “When I was a teenager I decided I was going to be a writer and that nothing was going to stop me. It sounds almost villainous. But I knew that was what I wanted.”

— Markus Zusak

456. “That’s typically what writers do; we just sit around complaining most of the time. And the better things are going, the more they complain.”

— Markus Zusak

457. “At times, it makes me want to stop and stay. Stay for ever.”

— Markus Zusak

458. “Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man’s gentleness, his thereness. The girl knew from the outset that Hans Hubermann would always appear midscream, and he would not leave.”

— Markus Zusak

459. “I like to tell students, ‘I didn’t burst on to the literary scene.’ I’m never good at things at the beginning. I was terrible at the start. I need to work and work.”

— Markus Zusak

460. “There was guilt for enjoying anything. Especially the joy of forgetting.”

— Markus Zusak

461. “Around six-thirty, Rory was across the street, leaning against a telegraph pole, smiling just for laughs; the world was filthy, and so was he. After a short search, he pulled a long strand of girls’ hair from his mouth. Whoever she was, she was out there somewhere, she lay open-legged in Rory’s head. A girl we’ll never know, or see.”

— Markus Zusak

462. “I want to talk to him. I want to ask him about that girl and if he loved her and still misses her.”

— Markus Zusak

463. “There were reasons to leave, and reasons to stay, and all of it was the same.”

— Markus Zusak

464. “Carey liked the fact that Michelangelo had had his nose broken as a teenager, for being too much of a smart mouth; a reminder that he was human. A badge of imperfection.”

— Markus Zusak

465. “It could be worse. I could be you.”

— Markus Zusak

466. “She didn’t overreact. It may have crossed her mind to march down to the woman responsible for sending this charity shitbox, but she didn’t. She swallowed the glint of anger. She packed it into her prim-and-proper voice, and like her son, moved on.”

— Markus Zusak

467. “Make sure you live,′ she said. ‘As decent as you can. I know you’ll make mistakes, but sometimes you’re meant to, okay?”

— Markus Zusak

468. “Steve, on the other hand, has plenty of friends, but he wouldn’t bleed for any of them, because he wouldn’t trust them to bleed for him. In that way he’s just as alone as me.”

— Markus Zusak

469. “What is it about the sound of clapping hands? Why does it seem like an ocean of sound, breaking like waves on top of you? Why does it make a tide turn in you? Maybe it’s because it’s one of the most noble things humans do with their hands. I mean, humans make fists with their hands. They use them to hurt each other and steal things. When humans clap, it’s the one time they stand together and applaud other humans. I think they’re there to keep things. They hold moments together, to remember.”

— Markus Zusak

470. “Tradition can be a dirty word, especially around Christmas. Families all over the globe get together and enjoy each other’s company for all of a few minutes. For an hour, they endure each other. After that, they just manage to stomach each other.”

— Markus Zusak

471. “They were eating in the kitchen. Looking at the spoonfuls of pea soup entering Mama’s mouth, she decided to shift her focus to Papa. “There’s something.”

— Markus Zusak

472. “God damn, you were so beautiful, Mama.”

— Markus Zusak

473. “Papa grinned and pointed at the girl. “Book, sandpaper, pencil,” he ordered her, “and accordion!” once she was already gone. Soon, they were on Himmel Street, carrying the words, the music, the washing.”

— Markus Zusak

474. “His eyes were the color of agony...”

— Markus Zusak

475. “A couple of them were school beauty-queen pretty while a few were that more real-looking type. A realer kind of pretty.”

— Markus Zusak

476. “Apesadumbrada, se dio cuenta de que los relojes no suenan a nada que se parezca siquiera a un tictac, sino al ruido que hace un martillo, arriba y abajo, golpeando una y otra vez contra el suelo. El sonido de una sepultura.”

— Markus Zusak

477. “He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.”

— Markus Zusak

478. “Burning words were torn from their sentences.”

— Markus Zusak

479. “There were great big shrugs of breath of him...”

— Markus Zusak

480. “He was a wasteland in a suit; he was bent-postured, he was broken.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

482. “I think ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ is the mother of all cult books, because you can be in that cult and not even know you’re in it.”

— Markus Zusak

483. “Each boy stood, slouched yet stiff, hands in pockets. If the dog had pockets, she’d have had her paws in them, too, for sure.”

— Markus Zusak

484. “On Friday a statement arrived to say that Hans Hubermann was to be drafted into the German army. A member of the Party would be happy to play a role in the war effort, it concluded. If he wasn’t, there would certainly be consequences.”

— Markus Zusak

485. “To most people, Hans Hubermann was barely visible. An un-special person. Certainly, his painting skills were excellent. His musical ability was better than average. Somehow, though, and I’m sure you’ve met people like this, he was able to appear as merely part of the background, even if he was standing at the front of a line. He was always just there. Not noticeable.”

— Markus Zusak

486. “He was built like a very small supermarket: Compact; expensive if you crossed him.”

— Markus Zusak

487. “The moon was undone now, free to move and rise and fall and drip on the boy’s face, making him nice and murky, like his thoughts.”

— Markus Zusak

488. “As far as dispositions go, hers wasn’t really enviable, although she had a good record with foster kids in the past.”

— Markus Zusak

489. “In bed, she read with Papa, who could tell something was wrong. It was the first time in a month that he’d come in and sat with her, and she was comforted, if only slightly. Somehow, Hans Hubermann always knew what to say, when to stay, and when to leave her be. Perhaps Liesel was the one thing he was a true expert at.”

— Markus Zusak

490. “El silencio siempre era la mayor de las tentaciones.”

— Markus Zusak

491. “It took three attempts to leave.”

— Markus Zusak

492. “Writing is always difficult, but easier with something to say.”

— Markus Zusak

493. “You’re an idiot-but you’re our kind of idiot. Come on.”

— Markus Zusak

494. “Returning and being let in: Two very different things.”

— Markus Zusak

495. “You know, they say that there are countless saints who have nothing to do with church and almost no knowledge of God. But they say God walks with those people without them ever knowing it.”

— Markus Zusak

496. “She tried to reassemble herself, to resemble herself...”

— Markus Zusak

497. “You will be caked in your own body.”

— Markus Zusak

498. “We admit to almost everything, and the almost is all that counts.”

— Markus Zusak

499. “On the ration cards of Nazi Germany, there was no listing for punishment, but everyone had to take their turn. For some it was death in a foreign country during the war. For others it was poverty and guilt when the war was over, when six million discoveries were made throughout Europe.”

— Markus Zusak

500. “Make no mistake, this woman had a heart. She had a bigger one than people would think. There was a lot in it, stored up, high in miles of hidden shelving. Remember that she was the woman with the instrument strapped to her body in the long, moon-slit night. She was a Jew feeder without a question in the world on a man’s first night in Molching. And she was an arm reacher, deep into a mattress, to deliver a sketchbook to a teenage girl.”

— Markus Zusak