Markus Zusak

Death's Diary: 1942 -

— Markus Zusak

I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result.

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

... And the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever.

— Markus Zusak

I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life.

— Markus Zusak

How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing.

— Markus Zusak

Grimly, she realized that clocks don't make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave.

— Markus Zusak

I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even 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...I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS.

— Markus Zusak

Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long.

— Markus Zusak

Living in Sydney, I've taken the chance to start surfing again. One of my best memories of growing up is catching my first proper wave and surfing across it and my brother cheering at me from the shore.

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

Personally, I like a chocolate-covered sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every color I see - the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off the stress. It helps me relax.

— Markus Zusak

A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH

— Markus Zusak

I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.

— Markus Zusak

Well, this is basically the end, so the answers should be in these next few pages. I doubt they will surprise you, but you never know. I don't know how smart or thick you are. You could be Albert Einstein for all I know, or some literary prizewinner, or maybe you're just middle of the road like me.

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

If they killed him tonight, at least he would die alive.

— Markus Zusak

It kills me sometimes, how people die.

— Markus Zusak

Even death has a heart.

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

She was still clutching the book. She was holding desperately on to the words who had saved her life.

— Markus Zusak

Very quickly, very suddenly, words fell through my mind. They landed on the floor of my thoughts, and in there, down there, I started to pick the words up. They were excerpts of truth gathered from inside me.

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.

— Markus Zusak

Summer came.

— Markus Zusak

Grimly, she realized that clocks don't make a sound that even remotely resembles ticking, tocking. It was more the sound of a hammer, upside down, hacking methodically at the earth. It was the sound of a grave.

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say "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. More of them have already found their way to other places.

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

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.

— Markus Zusak

Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.

— Markus Zusak

Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones.

— Markus Zusak

A halo surrounded the grim reaper nun, Sister Maria. (By the way-I like this human idea of the grim reaper. I like the scythe. It amuses me.)

— Markus Zusak

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

— Markus Zusak

Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.

— Markus Zusak

***HERE IS A SMALL FACT***

— Markus Zusak

It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to name just a few. Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a vacation.

— Markus Zusak

The bombs were coming-and so was I.

— Markus Zusak

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 thin, 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.

— Markus Zusak

for some reason, dying men always ask the question they know the answer to. perhaps it's so they can die being right.

— Markus Zusak

He killed himself for wanting to live.

— Markus Zusak

It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice.

— Markus Zusak

There were heavy beams - planks of sun - falling randomly, wonderfully, onto the road. Clouds arched their backs to lok behind as they started again to move on. 'It's such a beautiful day,' he said, and his voice was in many pieces. A great day to die. A great day to die, like this.

— Markus Zusak

Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. "I'm okay" we say. "I'm alright". But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can't get it off. That's when you realize that sometimes it isn't even an answer--it's a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.

— Markus Zusak