Markus Zusak Quotes

I'm just another stupid human.

On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy Steiner was robbery — so much life, so much to live for — yet somehow, I'm certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. He'd have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his decimated body. He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips.
Yes, I know it.
In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it all right.
You see?
Even death has a heart.

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.

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.

What would you do if you were me? Tell me. Please tell me!
But you're far from this. Your fingers turn the strangeness of these pages that somehow connect my life to yours. Your eyes are safe. The story is just another few hundred pages of your mind. For me, it's here. It's now. I have to go through with this, considering the cost at every turn. Nothing will be the same.

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

"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

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!

It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true — big things are often just small things that are noticed.

People die of broken hearts. They have heart attacks. And it's the heart that hurts most when things go wrong and fall apart.

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"

He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.

It's hard to not like a man who not only notices the colors, but speaks them.

There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if it were empty.

Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?

...one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.