Top 500 Markus Zusak Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “You cannot be afraid, Read the book. Smile at it. It’s a great book-the greatest book you’ve ever read.”

— Markus Zusak

152. “And it would show me, once again, that one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.”

— Markus Zusak

153. “Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.”

— Markus Zusak

154. “Once, words had rendered Liesel useless, but now, when she sat on the floor, with the mayor’s wife at her husband’s desk, she felt an innate sense of power. It happened every time she deciphered a new word or pieced together a sentence.”

— Markus Zusak

155. “The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this.”

— Markus Zusak

156. “It’s my heart that is tired. A thirteen-year-old heart shouldn’t feel like this.”

— Markus Zusak

157. “A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”

— Markus Zusak

158. “I always marvel at the humans’ ability to keep going. They always manage to stagger on even with tears streaming down their faces.”

— Markus Zusak

159. “People die of broken hearts. They have heart attacks. And it’s the heart that hurts most when things go wrong and fall apart.”

— Markus Zusak

160. “Silence was not quiet or calm, and it was not peace.”

— Markus Zusak

161. “I am stupid. And kind. Which makes the biggest idiot in the world.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

163. “Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion! But his bellows were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out.”

— Markus Zusak

164. “He was hanging from one of the rafters in a laundry up near Frau Diller’s. Another human pendulum. Another clock, stopped.”

— Markus Zusak

165. “The scrawled words of practice stood magnificently on the wall by the stairs, jagged and childlike and sweet. They looked on as both the hidden Jew and the girl slept, hand to shoulder. They breathed. German and Jewish lungs.”

— Markus Zusak

166. “That makes two weeks. Two weeks to change the world, and fourteen days to ruin it.”

— Markus Zusak

167. “When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.”

— Markus Zusak

168. “Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”

— Markus Zusak

169. “If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive.”

— Markus Zusak

170. “The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was important.”

— Markus Zusak

171. “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

172. “Sometimes I imagined how everything looked above those clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.”

— Markus Zusak

173. “So many humans. So many colors.”

— Markus Zusak

174. “Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.”

— Markus Zusak

175. “What do you want to kiss me for? I’m filthy.‘- Liesel So am I.’- Rudy.”

— Markus Zusak

176. “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.”

— Markus Zusak

177. “To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: “Get it done, get it done.” So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.”

— Markus Zusak

178. “Beautiful women are the torment of my existence.”

— Markus Zusak

179. “The only sound I’ll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.”

— Markus Zusak

180. “A small but noteworthy note. I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think they’re running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”

— Markus Zusak

181. “She was holding desperately on to the words that had saved her life.”

— Markus Zusak

182. “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

183. “I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”

— Markus Zusak

184. “The bombs were coming-and so was I.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

186. “I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair and surprise.”

— Markus Zusak

187. “Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words. I watched their love visions and freed them from their fear.”

— Markus Zusak

188. “Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father’s eyes. They were made of kindness, and silver. Like soft silver, melting. Liesel, upon seeing those eyes, understood that Hans Hubermann was worth a lot.”

— Markus Zusak

189. “She was like a lone angel floating above the surface of the earth, laughing with delight because she could fly but crying out of loneliness.”

— Markus Zusak

190. “It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to name just a few. Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a vacation.”

— Markus Zusak

191. “Shadows of cloud lurked in the water, like holes the sun forgot about.”

— Markus Zusak

192. “Is there cowardice with the acknowledgement of fear?”

— Markus Zusak

193. “Max, Hans, and Rosa I cannot account for, but I know that Liesel Meminger was thinking that if the bombs ever landed on Himmel Street, not only did Max have less chance of survival than everyone else, but he would die completely alone.”

— Markus Zusak

194. “A book floated down the Amper River. A boy jumped in, caught up to it, and held it in his right hand. He grinned. He stood waist-deep in the icy, Decemberish water. “How about a kiss, Saumensch?” he said.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

196. “Liesel crossed the bridge over the Amper River. The water was glorious and emerald and rich. She could see the stones at the bottom and hear the familiar song of water. The world did not deserve such a river.”

— Markus Zusak

197. “Her hair was a close enough brand of German blond, but she had dangerous eyes. Dark brown.”

— Markus Zusak

198. “As always, one of her books was next to her.”

— Markus Zusak

199. “The nightmares arrived like they always did, much like the best player in the opposition when you’ve heard rumors that he might be injured or sick-but there he is, warming up with the rest of them, ready to take the field.”

— Markus Zusak

200. “She let herself love me for three minutes. Can three minutes last forever? I ask myself, but already know the answer. Probably not, I reply. But maybe they last long enough.”

— Markus Zusak