Quotes by Markus Zusak

I wanted to drown inside a woman in the feeling and drooling of the love I could give her. I wanted her pulse to crush me with its intensity. Thats what I wanted. Thats what I wanted myself to be.

Sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after youve finished just to stay near it.

Hair the color of lemons, Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. You told him about me?At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? Its likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didnt matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty for it, waiting.Years ago, when theyd raced on a muddy field, Rudy was a hastily assembled set of bones, with a jagged, rocky smile. In the trees this afternoon, he was a giver of bread and teddy bears. He was a triple Hitler Youth athletics champion. He was her best friend. And he was a month from his death.Of course I told him about you, Liesel said.

I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And thats only the As. Just dont ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

She stood up and took the book from him, and as he smiled over his shoulder at some other kids, she threw it away and kicked him as hard as she could in the vicinity of the groin.Well, as you might imagine, Ludwig Schmeikl certainly buckled, and on the way down, he was punched in the ear. When he landed, he was set upon. When he was set upon, he was slapped and clawed and obliterated by a girl who was utterly consumed with rage. His skin was so warm and soft. Her knuckles and fingernails were so frighteningly tough, despite their smal

In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. Hed have loved it, all right.

How could she ever know that someone would pick her story up and carry it with him everywhere?

Tears were frozen to the book theifs face.

I bet that guy was as obsessed with Sarah as I am with this other girl, and I bet he promised himself never to hurt her, just like Ive been doin - and look what hes done to her. Hes left her a crumpled mess, lyin on her bed all the time.

If youre optimistic, think of it as bronze.

He was waving. Saukerl, she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think thats as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get.

She didnt see him watching as he played, having no idea that Hans Hubermanns accordion was a story. In the times ahead, that story would arrive at 33 Himmel Street in the early hours of morning, wearing ruffled shoulders and a shivering jacket. It would carry a suitcase, a book, and two questions. A story. Story after story. Story within story.

There were thousands of households throughout that city and there was something happening in all of them. There was some kind of story in each, but self-contained. No one else knew. No one else cared.

I dont really know that this story has a whole lot of things happen in it. It doesnt really. Its just a record of how things were in my life during this last winter. I guess things happened, but nothing out of the ordinary.

We used to languish when we walked, or sidle down the street like dogs that have just done something wrong. Now Rube walks upright, because hes on the attack.

No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment.

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

The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and its stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun islike a yellow hole. . .

In that one stolen second, I considered the Glebe girl. She entered my mind like a burglar, them vanished again, taking nothing. It was like the humiliation of the past had been dragged instantly from my back and left somewhere on the ground.

Make sure you live, she said. As decent as you can. I know youll make mistakes, but sometimes youre meant to, okay?