Australian writer (1975- )
Crowds of questions stream through me like lines of people exiting a soccer ground or a concert. They push and shove and trip. Some make their way around. Some remain in their seats, waiting for their opportunity.
MARKUS ZUSAK
I Am the Messenger
So much good, so much evil. Just add water.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
My friends ... they usually rib me about how I just sleep in and watch Oprah and that I don't really have a proper job. I've given up arguing now, so I just agree with them, even though half the time I realise I've started work before they have. Still, it's best to keep the romantic idea alive. If they call around midday and ask if they woke me, I always say yes.
MARKUS ZUSAK
interview, The View From Here
The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
Soon evening worked its way into the sky, and the city hunched itself down.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
Two weeks to change the world, fourteen days to destroy it.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
The flyscreen door slammed behind me.
My feet dragged.
I reached each arm into the jacket.
Warm sleeves.
Crumpled collar.
Hands in pockets.
Okay.
I walked.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
There are so many moments to remember and sometimes I think that maybe we're not really people at all. Maybe moments are what we are.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
If her soul ever leaks, I want it to land on me.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
Sometimes I just survive. But sometimes I stand on the rooftop of my existence, arms stretched out, begging for more.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
One of the best things about her was that she actually acknowledged my existence.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
Winning wasn't natural for me. It had to be fought for, in the echoes and trodden footprints of my mind.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Getting the Girl
The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
It was a Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
To me the question is always this: if a ray of light came out of the sky and said, "Your next book will never be published -- would you still write it?" If the answer is yes, the book is worth writing.
MARKUS ZUSAK
"Why I Write", The Guardian, Mar. 28, 2008
Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
It kills me sometimes, how people die.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
A happening was looming. It was out there somewhere beyond the regular enclosed life that I had been living. It was out there, not waiting, but existing. Being. Perhaps it was only slightly wondering if I would come to it.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Underdog
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.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
Not a beauty queen. Not one of those. You know the ones. She was real.
MARKUS ZUSAK
Underdog