Top 500 Markus Zusak Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It’s the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me.”

— Markus Zusak

202. “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

203. “I’m gonna hunt my life down and grab it.”

— Markus Zusak

204. “He left Himmel Street wearing his hangover and a suit.”

— Markus Zusak

205. “She rubbed her eyes, and after a long study of his face, she spoke “Is it really you?” Is it from your cheek, she thought, that I took the seed? The man nodded. His heart wobbled and he held tighter to the branches. It is.”

— Markus Zusak

206. “She didn’t see him watching as he played, having no idea that Hans Hubermann’s accordion was a story. In the times ahead, that story would arrive at 33 Himmel Street in the early hours of morning, wearing ruffled shoulders and a shivering jacket. It would carry a suitcase, a book, and two questions. A story. Story after story. Story within story.”

— Markus Zusak

207. “The suffering faces of depleted men and women reached across to them, pleading not so much for help-they were beyond that-but for an explanation. Just something to subdue this confusion.”

— Markus Zusak

208. “So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

— Markus Zusak

209. “No, I’m not a saint, Sophie. I’m just another stupid human.”

— Markus Zusak

210. “The day was gray, the color of Europe.”

— Markus Zusak

211. “No one’s urine smells as good as your own.”

— Markus Zusak

212. “He killed himself for wanting to live.”

— Markus Zusak

213. “So many people chased after me in that time, calling my name, asking me to take them with me. Then there was the small percentage who called me casually over and whispered with their tightend voices.”

— Markus Zusak

214. “It’s all very well for such a person to whine and moan and criticize other family members, but they won’t let anyone else do it. That’s when you get your back up and show loyalty.”

— Markus Zusak

215. “The moon was sewn into the sky that night.”

— Markus Zusak

216. “It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you may expect, someone has died.”

— Markus Zusak

217. “For two days I went about my business. I travelled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity.”

— Markus Zusak

218. “An eleven-year-old girl is many things, but she is not stupid.”

— Markus Zusak

219. “Papa’s lungs were full of sky.”

— Markus Zusak

220. “If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter and bread with only the scent of jam spread on top of it. It was the best time of her life.”

— Markus Zusak

221. “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

222. “But then, is there cowardice in the acknowledgment of fear? Is there cowardice in being glad that you lived?”

— Markus Zusak

223. “Yes, the sky was now a devastating, home-cooked red. The small German town had been flung apart one more time. Snowflakes of ash fell so lovelily you were tempted to stretch out your tongue to catch them, taste them. Only, they would have scorched your lips. They would have cooked your mouth.”

— Markus Zusak

224. “Todo el mundo sabe que una bola de nieve en la cara es el comienzo perfecto de una amistad duradera.”

— Markus Zusak

225. “I just know that right now, we want to be proud. For once. We want to take the struggle and rise above it. We want to frame it, live it, survive it. We want to put it in our mouths and taste it and never forget it, because it makes us strong.”

— Markus Zusak

226. “Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.”

— Markus Zusak

227. “You might argue that I make the rounds no matter what year it is, but sometimes the human race likes to crank things up a little. They increase the production of bodies and their escaping souls.”

— Markus Zusak

228. “Is this yours?’ ‘Yes, Papa.’ ‘Do you want to read it?’ Again, ‘Yes, Papa.’ A tired smile. Metallic eyes, melting. ‘Well we’d better read it then.”

— Markus Zusak

229. “You should know it yourself- a young man is still a boy, and a boy sometimes has the right to be stubborn.”

— Markus Zusak

230. “You don’t always get what you wish for. Especially in Nazi Germany.”

— Markus Zusak

231. “Why can’t the world hear? I ask myself. Within a few moments I ask it many times. Because it doesn’t care, I finally answer, and I know I’m right. It’s like I’ve been chosen. But chosen for what? I ask.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

233. “One eye open, one still in a dream.”

— Markus Zusak

234. “Make no mistake, the 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.”

— Markus Zusak

235. “All my friends seem to be smart arses. Don’t ask me why. Like many things, it is what it is.”

— Markus Zusak

236. “She didn’t dare to look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging onto her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out. A voice played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion.”

— Markus Zusak

237. “How many times did she have to say goodbye?”

— Markus Zusak

238. “On Munich Street, Rudy noticed Deutscher walking along the footpath with some friends and felt the need to throw a rock at him. You might as well ask just what the hell he was thinking. The answer is probably nothing at all. He’d probably say that he was exercising his God-given right to stupidity.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

240. “Stars of David were plastered to their shirts, and misery was attached to them as if assigned. “Don’t forget your misery... ” In some cases, it grew on them like a vine.”

— Markus Zusak

241. “The water crumbles on it’s way down as my hands and feet push me forward. The world is lightening, taking shape, and turning to color. It feels like it’s being painted around me.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

243. “A human doesn’t have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. 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. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”

— Markus Zusak

244. “Of course you’re real-like any thought or any story. It’s real when you’re in it.”

— Markus Zusak

245. “Although something inside told her that this was a crime – after all, her three books were the most precious items she owned – she was compelled to see the thing lit. She couldn’t help it. I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”

— Markus Zusak

246. “We might be criminals, but we’re not totally immoral.”

— Markus Zusak

247. “She was battered and beaten up, and not smiling this time. Liesel could see it on her face. Blood leaked from her nose and licked at her lips. Her eyes had blackened. Cuts had opened up and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin. All from the words. From Liesel’s words.”

— Markus Zusak

248. “Steam was rising weirdly from his clothes. His hangover was visible. It heaved itself to his shoulders and sat there like a bag of wet cement.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

250. “Highlight: “Arschloch!” Papa yelped. “Liesel, give me some of that snow. A whole bucket!” For a few minutes, they all forgot. There was no more yelling or calling out, but they could not contain the small snatches of laughter. They were only humans, playing in the snow, in a house.”

— Markus Zusak