Top 500 Markus Zusak Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “Everything was good. But it was awful, too.”

— Markus Zusak

102. “Where Hans Hubermann and Erik Vandenburg were ultimately united by music, Max and Liesel were held together by the quiet gathering of words.”

— Markus Zusak

103. “I watched the sky as it turned from silver to grey to the colour of rain. Even the clouds tried to look the other way.”

— Markus Zusak

104. “It is early, early morning. It’s that time when it’s still dark but you know the day is coming. Blue is bleeding through black. Stars are dying.”

— Markus Zusak

105. “No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment.”

— Markus Zusak

106. “The Gunman is useless. I know it. He knows it. The whole bank knows it.”

— Markus Zusak

107. “If her soul ever leaks, I want it to land on me.”

— Markus Zusak

108. “Humans have a talent for escalation. -Death.”

— Markus Zusak

109. “Have you ever noticed that idiots have a lot of friends? It’s just an observation.”

— Markus Zusak

110. “Competence was attractive.”

— Markus Zusak

111. “Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”

— Markus Zusak

112. “He was waving. “Saukerl,” she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think that’s as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get.”

— Markus Zusak

113. “Amplified by the still of night, the book opened – a gust of wind.”

— Markus Zusak

114. “Even enemies were an inch away from friendship.”

— Markus Zusak

115. “It’s chaos out there, and chaos is what we need.”

— Markus Zusak

116. “And I stop listening to me, because to put it bluntly, I tire me.”

— Markus Zusak

117. “Only in today’s sick society can a man be persecuted for reading too many books.”

— Markus Zusak

Featured in: Reading Quotes

118. “She kept watching the words.”

— Markus Zusak

119. “Two Giant Words: I’m Sorry.”

— Markus Zusak

120. “The conversation of bullets.”

— Markus Zusak

121. “The paper landed on the table, but the news was stapled to his chest. A tattoo.”

— Markus Zusak

122. “I try hard and aim big. People can hate or love my books but they can never accuse me of not trying.”

— Markus Zusak

123. “When Liesel left that day, she said something with great uneasiness. In translation, two giant words were struggled with, carried on her shoulder, and dropped as a bungling pair at Ilsa Hermann’s feet. They fell off sideways as the girl veered with them and could no longer sustain their weight. Together, they sat on the floor, large and loud and clumsy. Two giant words... I’m sorry.”

— Markus Zusak

124. “You are going to die.”

— Markus Zusak

125. “The yawn of a girl can be so beautiful it makes you cringe.”

— Markus Zusak

126. “If you ever write a book, I can only give you one piece of advice. Don’t let your parents get involved.”

— Markus Zusak

127. “I didn’t know words could be so heavy.”

— Markus Zusak

128. “I think to be writer you have to enjoy being alone. I was a loner as a teenager and was always drawn to characters in books and films who were at the fringes.”

— Markus Zusak

129. “To me the question is always this: if a ray of light came out of the sky and said, “Your next book will never be published – would you still write it?” If the answer is yes, the book is worth writing.”

— Markus Zusak

130. “I see Death as the part of us that knows all the time that we’re going to die, reminding us to live properly.”

— Markus Zusak

131. “There were people of every stature, but amongst them, the poor were the most easily recognised. The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help. They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip – the relative you cringe to kiss.”

— Markus Zusak

132. “An attribute of Rosa Hubermann, she was a good woman for a crisis.”

— Markus Zusak

133. “The point is, Ilsa Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph. When it refused to let go of her, she succumbed to it. She embraced it.”

— Markus Zusak

134. “Liesel’s blood had dried inside of her. It crumbled. She almost broke into pieces on the steps.”

— Markus Zusak

135. “It’s a lot easier, she realized, to be on the verge of something than to actually be it. This would still take time.”

— Markus Zusak

136. “She gathered the books like clouds and words poured down like rain.”

— Markus Zusak

137. “Now he turned on to the side street, making his way to number thirty-three, resisting the urge to smile, resisting the urge to sob or even imagine the safety that might be awaiting him. He reminded himself that this was no time for hope.”

— Markus Zusak

138. “Insane or not, Rudy was always destined to be Liesel’s best friend. A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

140. “Five hundred souls. I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I’d throw them over my shoulder. It was only the the children I carried in my arms.”

— Markus Zusak

141. “You can do all manner of underhanded nice things when you have a caustic reputation.”

— Markus Zusak

142. “Rosa Hubermann was sitting on the edge of the bed with her husband’s accordion tied to her chest. Her fingers hovered above the keys. She did not move. She didn’t ever appear to be breathing.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

144. “A fighter can be a winner, but that doesn’t make a winner a fighter.”

— Markus Zusak

145. “She took a step and didn’t want to take any more, but she did.”

— Markus Zusak

146. “Of course I told him about you,” Liesel said. She was saying goodbye and she didn’t even know it.”

— Markus Zusak

147. “The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.”

— Markus Zusak

148. “I realize that nothing belongs to her anymore and she belongs to everything.”

— Markus Zusak

149. “Whoever named Himmel Street certainly had a healthy sense of irony. Not that is was a living hell. It wasn’t. But is sure as hell wasn’t heaven, either.”

— Markus Zusak

150. “I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there.”

— Markus Zusak