Quotes by Markus Zusak

About Markus Zusak:

Markus Frank Zusak is an Australian writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger (US title, I Am the Messenger), two novels for young adults which have been international bestsellers. He won the annual Margaret Edwards Award in 2014 for his contribution to young-adult literature published in the US.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

My mouth opened. It happened. Yes, with my head thrown into the sky, I started howling. Arms stretched out next to me, I howled, and everything came out of me. Visions pored up my throat and past voices surrounded me. The sky listened. The city didn'...

Markus Zusak

When you looked out my window you could see the whole city crouched under a blanket of car smog.

Markus Zusak

I stood there and stared, into the sky and at the city around me. I stood, hands at my side, and I saw what had happened to me and who I was and the way things would always be for me. Truth. There was no more wishing, or wondering. I knew who I was, ...

Markus Zusak

There were thousands of households throughout that city and there was something happening in all of them. There was some kind of story in each, but self-contained. No one else knew. No one else cared.

Markus Zusak

The city was dark except for the building lights that seemed to appear like sores - like bandaids had been ripped off to expose the city's skin.

Markus Zusak

... I felt something and vowed that if I ever got a girl I would treat her right and never be bad or dirty to her or hurt her, ever. I vowed it and had all the confidence in the world that I would keep the vow.

Markus Zusak

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

I walked home, seeing all my doubt from the other side. Have you ever seen that? Like when you go on holiday. On the way back, everything is the same but it looks a little different than it did on the way. It's because you're seeing it backwards.

Markus Zusak

I kept walking. Have you ever done that? Just walk. Just walk and have no idea where you're going? It wasn't a good feeling, but not a bad one either. I felt caged and free at the same time, like it was only myself that wouldn't allow me to feel eith...

Markus Zusak

Well, this is basically the end, so the answers should be in these next few pages. I doubt they will surprise you, but you never know. I don't know how smart or thick you are. You could be Albert Einstein for all I know, or some literary prizewinner,...

Markus Zusak

The pages and the words are my world, spread out before your eyes and for your hand to touch. Vaguely, I can see you face looking down into me, as I look back. Do you see my eyes?

Markus Zusak

My own eyes try to sleep, but they don't. They stay wide awake as time snarls forward and silence drops down, like measured thought.

Markus Zusak

Awkward. That's exactly how it was when we walked over to our sister and stood on each side of her, looking at her and feeling things and not knowing what to do.

Markus Zusak

One good punch from Rube on me would send the sky into my head and the clouds into my lungs. I just always tried to stay up.

Markus Zusak

The word maybe was beginning to annoy me, because the only thing that was fixed was that maybe would be with me forever.

Markus Zusak

I wanted nothing for free. Nothing came for free at our place anyway.

Markus Zusak

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

Best friends one, and now we have almost nothing to say to each other. It was interesting, how he had joined those guys and I just stayed on my own. I didn't like it or dislike it. It was just funny that things had turned out that way.

Markus Zusak

See, I was never a guy who had a whole heap of friends to belong to. Besides Greg Fienni, I never really had friends. I kind of stayed on my own. I hated it, but I was proud of it too. Cameron Wolfe needed no one. He didn't need to be amongst a pack....

Markus Zusak

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

Author Bio

  • NameMarkus Zusak
  • DescriptionAustralian author
  • BornJune 23, 1975
  • CountryAustralia
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • AwardsMargaret Edwards Award