Markus Zusak > Quotes

“I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I think she ate a salad and some soup.
And loneliness.
She ate that, too. ”
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“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, The Book Thief

“She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen.

With wonder, she smiled.

That such a room existed!”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“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, The Book Thief

“Only in today's sick society can a man be persecuted for reading too many books.”
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“I..." He struggled to answer. "When everything was quiet, I went up to the corridor and the curtain in the livingroom was open just a crack... I could see outside. I watched, only for a few seconds." He had not seen the outside world for twenty-two months.
There was no anger or reproach.
It was Papa who spoke.
How did it look?"
Max lifted his head, with great sorrow and great astonishment. "There were stars," he said. "They burned by eyes.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Two weeks to change the world, fourteen days to destroy it.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Goodbye, Papa, you saved me. You taught me to read. No one can play like you. I'll never drink champagne. No one can play like you."
-Liesel”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Please, trust me, I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“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, The Book Thief

“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, I Am the Messenger

“Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race—that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. 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.

None of those things, however, came out of my mouth.

All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I truly know. I said it to the book thief and I say it now to you.

I am haunted by humans.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Five hundred souls.
I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the the children I carried in my arms. ”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something, but everything.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“If a guy like you can stand up and do what you did, then maybe everyone can. Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of. ”
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“You’re a human, you should understand self-obsession.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I'm just another stupid human.”
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“***HERE IS A SMALL FACT***
You are going to die.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“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, The Book Thief

“You cannot be afraid, Read the book. Smile at it. It's a great book-the greatest book you've ever read.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“It's a lot easier, she realized, to be on the verge of something than to actually be it. This would still take time.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“They say that war is death's best friend, but I must offer you a different point of view on that one. To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thin, 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, The Book Thief

“for some reason, dying men always ask the question they know the answer to. perhaps it's so they can die being right.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“That was when the world wasn't so big and I could see everywhere. It was when my father was a hero and not a human.”
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

“When death captures me," the boy vowed, "he will feel my fist in his face." (31.26)”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief