Quotes from Markus Zusak

The world is lightening, taking shape, and turning to color.

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.

Again, Himmel Street was a trail of people, and again, Papa left his accordion. Rosa reminded him to take it, but he refused. 'I didn't take it last time,' he explained, 'and we lived.' War clearly blurred the distinction between logic and superstition.

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

When it was over, they lay on their backs; there was a window on this, the top floor of the stairwell, and grubby light, and rising-falling chests. The air was heavy. Tons of it, heaping from their lungs. Henry gulped it good and hard, but his mouth showed true heart.

sometimes the human race likes to crank things up a little. They increase the production of bodies and their escaping souls.

I collect my thoughts as if they will stain me, murder me, and then resurrect me." Markus Zusak, When Dogs Cry

It was like she held a string and pulled on it just slightly to open me up. She got in, put a piece of herself inside me, and left again. In there, somewhere, I still feel it.

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

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?

Un asiento, dos hombres, una breve discusión y yo. A veces me mata ver cómo muere la gente.

Bold and bright, a trilogy of happiness would continue for a summer's duration and into autumn. It would then be brought abruptly to an end, for the brightness had shown suffering the way. Hard times were coming. Like a parade.

Menschen sterben an gebrochenem Herzen. Sie bekommen Herzinfarkte. Und es ist das Herz, das am meisten wehtut, wenn etwas schief geht und auseinander fällt.

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.

She especially loved to see him hit the silver, sparkled button—the C major.) The accordion's scratched yet shiny black exterior came back and forth as his arms squeezed the dusty bellows, making it suck in the air and throw it back out. In the kitchen on those mornings, Papa made the accordion live. I guess it makes sense, when you really think about it. How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing.

Antes simplemente eras. [...] Ahora eres alguien, Ed.

Her nerves licked her palms.

The town itself was a hard, distant storyland; you could see it from afar. There was all the straw-like landscape, and marathons of sky. Around it, a wilderness of low scrub and gum trees stood close by, and it was true, it was so damn true: the people sloped and slouched.

One sat painfully now, among the falling chunks of rain, and the other stood next to her, waiting. "Why did he have to die?" she asked, but still, Rudy did nothing; he said nothing. When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Papa's hands tightened on the splintery wood. I'm an idiot. No, Papa. You're just a man.

Is it from your cheek that I took the seed?

Well, promise me one thing, Liesel. If I die anytime soon, you make sure they bury me right.

Under the ground, in Munich, Germany, two people stood and spoke in a basement. It sounds like the beginning of a joke: 'There's a Jew and a German standing in a basement, right?...' This, however, was no joke.

He'd probably say that he was exercising his God-given right to stupidity.