Quotes By Author: Markus Zusak

“Time will tell, I suppose, or at least, these pages will.”

“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.”

“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.”

“It makes me wonder, Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or forget things? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives? I don’t know.”

“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.”

“She wanted none of those days to end, and it was always with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward. ”

“For a moment, I debated whether I should tell someone about the words I’d started writing down, but I couldn’t. In a way, I felt ashamed, even though my writing was the one thing that whispered okayness in my ear. I didn’t speak it, to anyone.”

“You should give it to Max, Liesel. See if you can leave it on the bedside table, like all the other things.” Liesel watched him as if he’d gone insane. “How, though?” Lightly, he tapped her skull with his knuckles. “Memorize it. Then write it down for him.”

“Could she smell my breath? Could she hear my cursed circular heart beat revolving like the crime it is in my deathly chest?”

“For two days I went about my business. I travelled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity.”

“The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.”

“I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.” Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out.”

“Death’s Diary: 1942 -It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to just name a few. Forget the scythe, God damn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a holiday.(…) 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 thing, 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.”

“Death waits for no man – and if he does, he doesn’t usually wait for very long.”

“How do you tell if something’s alive? You check for breathing.”