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Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak Quotes

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Famous Markus Zusak Quotes

“We underestimate teenagers at our peril. Even the dismissive thing out on the street--look at what they're wearing. Then we'll hear stories about how a toddler fell on the tracks, and it's often a teenager who comes to the rescue and walks away because he or she doesn't want any credit. I recognize it because I've written books for teenagers--it's basically that they feel things more than adults do. They want things more than you think. They want things with greater depth than you think they do. Teenagers have got a lot of soul that adults have forgotten they have within themselves.”

ThinkingWantFeelsLooksBookSoulStoriesWalksGreaterWrittenStreetsAdultsDepthForgottenTrackCreditTeenagerRescueUnderestimatePerilToddler
Author:Markus Zusak
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“I guess I'm what you call a slush-piler. I just sent my manuscripts to the slush pile of publishers and hoped for the best. Over seven years, I was rejected seven times on three different books. The fourth attempt was picked up by a small publisher, and I still have great memories of staying up all night, talking to my brother and sisters (my dad called me at 2:30 in the morning because I was overseas).”

YearsStillsBookDifferentNightThreeMemoriesTalkingMorningBrotherDadSevenMy DadMy BrotherStayingFourthRejectedPublishersBrothers And SistersSeven YearsAll NightManuscriptsUp All NightGreat MemoriesDifferent BooksSlush
Author:Markus Zusak
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“There are two magic acts I want to pull off when I write. One is creating a feeling that when you're inside a book, you believe everything you're reading even when you know it's not true. And the second is an extension of that, which is you know it's not true, you know it's not real, but you believe it anyway. And it's that believing of the story that isn't real that attracted me to writing and storytelling in general.”

KnowsWantWritingBelieveTwoBookRealStoriesFeelingsReadingMagicCreatingStorytellingExtensionsTrue You
Author:Markus Zusak
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“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.”

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Author:Markus Zusak
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“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!”

SaidBookDifferentBeautifulBlackRoomsWonderAirStyleWallColdRedSizeLoudGrayBeautiful ThingsSpineDifferent StylesImmaculateLieselCold AirLiesel Meminger
Book:The Book Thief: 10th Anniversary Edition
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“I carried Rudy softly through the broken street...with him I tried a little harder at comforting. I watched the contents of his soul for a moment and saw a black-painted boy calling the name Jesse Owens as he ran through an imaginary tape. I saw him hip-deep in some icy water, chasing a book, and I saw a boy lying in bed, imagining how a kiss would taste from his glorious next-door neighbor. He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.”

HeartLittlesDoeBookSoulMomentsLyingNextNamesBlackWaterStepsBoysSawsDoorsStreetsCryBrokenMy HeartCallingTasteBedKissingHarderNeighborHipsRanGloriousTapeImaginaryChasingComfortingIcyRudyNext Door Neighbors
Author:Markus Zusak
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“Of course, I'm being rude. I'm spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don't have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me. There are many things to think of. There is much story.”

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Book:The Book Thief: Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition
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“She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better. What good were the words? She said it audibly now, to the orange-lit room. "What good are the words?”

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Book:The Book Thief: 10th Anniversary Edition
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“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.”

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Book:The Book Thief: 10th Anniversary Edition
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“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.”

IfsKnowsHeartHas BeensBookBodyHandsNightCertainNextDarkBoysDarknessSkyKissingLipsGladWitnessKneesBombsThievesFrighteningCriedPassed AwayRobberySwellingRubbleRudy
Author:Markus Zusak
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“For at least twenty minutes she handed out the story. The youngest kids were soothed by her voice, and everyone else saw visions of the whistler running from the scene. Liesel did not. The book thief saw only the mechanics of the words--their bodies stranded on the paper, beaten down for her to walk on. Somewhere, too, in the gaps between a period and the next capital letter, there was also Max. She remembered reading to him when he was sick. It he in the basement? she wondered. Or is he stealing a glimpse of the sky again?”

BookStoriesBodyRunningKidsReadingNextVoiceWalksVisionSawsSkyMinutesPeriodsScenePaperLettersSickTwentiesStealingRememberedGapsThievesBeatenGlimpseMechanicMaxBasementsStrandedLieselWhistler
Author:Markus Zusak
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“Summer came. For the book thief, everything was going nicely. For me, the sky was the color of Jews. When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.”

BookSoulBodySpiritCertainForceCasesDoorsSkyMinutesColorArmsSummerEternityRoseJewWoodsFinishedGapsThievesSheerRoofShowersDesperationFeedingFacilityBreadthFingernails
Author:Markus Zusak
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“And I can promise you something, because it was a thing I saw many years later - a vision in the book thief herself - that as she knelt next to Hans Hubermann, she watched him stand and play the accordion. He stood and strapped it on in the alps of broken houses and played the accordion with kindness silver eyes and even a cigarette slouched on his lips. The bellows breathed and the tall man played for Liesel Meminger one last time as the sky was slowly taken away from her.”

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Author:Markus Zusak
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“Don't be afraid to fail. I fail every day. I failed thousands of times writing The Book Thief, and that book now means everything to me. I had many doubts and fears about that book, but some of what I feel are the best ideas in it came to me when I was working away for apparently no result. Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.”

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Author:Markus Zusak
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