MARKUS ZUSAK QUOTES II

Australian writer (1975- )

Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.

MARKUS ZUSAK

I Am the Messenger

Tags: questions


My friends ... they usually rib me about how I just sleep in and watch Oprah and that I don't really have a proper job. I've given up arguing now, so I just agree with them, even though half the time I realise I've started work before they have. Still, it's best to keep the romantic idea alive. If they call around midday and ask if they woke me, I always say yes.

MARKUS ZUSAK

interview, The View From Here


So much good, so much evil. Just add water.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief

Tags: evil


Soon evening worked its way into the sky, and the city hunched itself down.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl


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

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief


Two weeks to change the world, fourteen days to destroy it.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief


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

Getting the Girl


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

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl

Tags: souls


There are so many moments to remember and sometimes I think that maybe we're not really people at all. Maybe moments are what we are.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl


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

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl


One of the best things about her was that she actually acknowledged my existence.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl


It was a Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief


The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief


Winning wasn't natural for me. It had to be fought for, in the echoes and trodden footprints of my mind.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl

Tags: winning


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

"Why I Write", The Guardian, Mar. 28, 2008

Tags: writing


Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief

Tags: misery


It kills me sometimes, how people die.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief


A happening was looming. It was out there somewhere beyond the regular enclosed life that I had been living. It was out there, not waiting, but existing. Being. Perhaps it was only slightly wondering if I would come to it.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Underdog


I like that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing--that words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They're the best moments in a day of writing -- when an image appears that you didn't know would be there when you started work in the morning.

MARKUS ZUSAK

The Book Thief

Tags: books


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

MARKUS ZUSAK

Underdog

Tags: beauty