Top 500 Markus Zusak Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “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

252. “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

253. “I see their ugly and their beauty, and wonder how the same thing can be both.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

255. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be asking such things... ′ She let the sentence die its own death.”

— Markus Zusak

256. “And then there’s the sickness I feel from looking at legs I can’t touch, or at lips that don’t smile at me. Or hips that don’t reach for me. And hearts that don’t beat for me.”

— Markus Zusak

257. “It’s also worthy of mention that every pattern has at least one small bias, and one day it will tip itself over or fall from one page to another.”

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

259. “When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity’s certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.”

— Markus Zusak

260. “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

261. “It was a Sunday, an arsonist sunrise.”

— Markus Zusak

262. “People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment.”

— Markus Zusak

263. “Grimly, she realized that clocks don’t make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave.”

— Markus Zusak

264. “At first, she could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him?”

— Markus Zusak

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

265. “Clearly, I see it. I was just about to leave when I found her kneeling there. A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her. She was clucthing at a book.”

— Markus Zusak

266. “It’s funny, don’t you think, how time seems to do a lot of things? It flies, it tells, and worst of all, it runs out.”

— Markus Zusak

267. “Handfuls of frosty water can make almost anyone smile, but it cannot make them forget.”

— Markus Zusak

268. “Sometimes she sat against the wall, longing for the warm finger of paint to wander just once more down the side of her nose, or to watch the sandpaper texture of her papa’s hands. 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 out on top of it. It was the best time of her life.”

— Markus Zusak

269. “I did it on purpose.”

— Markus Zusak

270. “Words are life, Liesel.”

— Markus Zusak

271. “Never leave anything out to dry as the sun comes up for the new year.”

— Markus Zusak

272. “Sometimes you go to the wrong place, but the right way comes and finds you.”

— Markus Zusak

273. “My soul needs yours.”

— Markus Zusak

274. “He walked from one end of the basement to the other, the lamplight magnifying his shadow. It turned him into a giant on the wall, walking back and forth. When he stopped pacing, his shadow loomed behind him, watching. Someone was always watching.”

— Markus Zusak

275. “Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or to forget? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives?”

— Markus Zusak

276. “It was a style not of perfection, but warmth. Even mistakes had a good feeling about them.”

— Markus Zusak

277. “There was sex, of course. Nakedness. Wall to wall, in and out of my thoughts. But when it was over it was her whispering voice I craved, and a human curled up in my arms.”

— Markus Zusak

278. “It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors- an expert at being left behind.”

— Markus Zusak

279. “Now I’ve changed things. I’ve left my own fingerprints on the world, no matter how small, and it’s upset the equilibrium of us.”

— Markus Zusak

280. “How do you tell if something’s alive? You check for breathing.”

— Markus Zusak

281. “In a way, I wish I could be like that. You’d never worry or care about anything that really mattered. You’d be happy, in the same pitiful way someone like our friend Ritchie is. Nothing affects you, and you affect nothing.”

— Markus Zusak

282. “Her teeth were like a soccer crowd, crammed in.”

— Markus Zusak

283. “I watch the beauty for as long as I can, then turn and face the rest of it.”

— Markus Zusak

284. “It travelled and wondered, but it disclosed no answers. Not yet.”

— Markus Zusak

285. “Mistakes, mistakes, it’s all I seem capable of at times.”

— Markus Zusak

286. “Usually it was like spillage- cold and heavy, slippery and gray- but once in a while some stars had the nerve to rise and float, if only for a few minutes.”

— Markus Zusak

287. “Well, have you even tried again? You can’t just sit around waiting for the new world to take it with you. You have to go out and be part of it – despite your past mistakes.”

— Markus Zusak

288. “White light lowered itself into a boxing ring and a crowd stood and murmured – that magical sound of many people talking all at once. How could every person there have so much to say at the same time?”

— Markus Zusak

289. “She was a girl. In Nazi Germany. How fitting that she was discovering the power of words.”

— Markus Zusak

290. “It’s not so much that the old friend is a better friend. It’s just that you know the person better, and you know they don’t really care if you’re acting like a poor, grovelling idiot. They know you would do the same for them.”

— Markus Zusak

291. “They’d been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.”

— Markus Zusak

292. “There were not many people who could say that their education had been paid for with cigarettes.”

— Markus Zusak

293. “The flyscreen door slammed behind me. My feet dragged. I reached each arm into the jacket. Warm sleeves. Crumpled collar. Hands in pockets. Okay. I walked.”

— Markus Zusak

294. “I look at her wish we could go inside and make love on the couch. Dive inside each other. Take each other. Make each other. Nothing happens, though.”

— Markus Zusak

295. “Crossword?” he would ask.”

— Markus Zusak

296. “If you feel like it, come with me. I will tell you a story. I’ll show you something.”

— Markus Zusak

297. “Not a beauty queen. Not one of those. You know the ones. She was real.”

— Markus Zusak

298. “I actually feel quite self-indulgent at the moment, telling you all about me, me, me. My travels, what I saw in ’42. On the other hand, you’re a human – you should understand self-obsession.”

— Markus Zusak

299. “I however, try to enjoy every color I see the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same.”

— Markus Zusak

300. “It was a place nobody wanted to stay and look at, but almost everyone did. Shaped like a long, broken arm, the road contained several houses with lacerated windows and bruised walls. The Star of David was painted on their doors. Those houses were almost like lepers. At the very least, they were infected sores on the injured German terrain.”

— Markus Zusak