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As she watched all of this, Liesel was certain that these were the poorest souls alive. That's what she wrote about them . . . Some looked appealingly at those who had come to observe their humiliation, this prelude to their deaths. Others pleaded for someone, anyone to step forward and catch them in their arms. No one did.

Markus Zusak

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Markus Zusak
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: January 1
Novelist
Writer
Sydney
NSW
Come
Arms
Observe
Steps
Watched
Alive
Catch
Anyone
Souls
Pleaded
Others
Wrote
Prelude
Someone
Forward
Deaths
Certain
Looked
Poorest
Soul
Step
Humiliation

More quotes by Markus Zusak

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Liesel's blood had dried inside of her. It crumbled. She almost broke into pieces on the steps.
Markus Zusak
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The scrawled words of practice stood magnificently on the wall by the stairs, jagged and childlike and sweet. They looked on as both the hidden Jew and the girl slept, hand to shoulder. They breathed. German and Jewish lungs.
Markus Zusak
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I always marvel at the humans' ability to keep going. They always manage to stagger on even with tears streaming down their faces.
Markus Zusak
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Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.
Markus Zusak
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Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his thereness. (p.36)
Markus Zusak
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Each night, Liesel would step outside, wipe the door, and watch the sky. Usually it was like spillage - cold and heavy, slippery and gray - but once in a while some stars had the nerve to rise and float, if only for a few minutes. On those nights, she would stay a little longer and wait. Hello, stars.
Markus Zusak
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Liesel crossed the bridge over the Amper River. The water was glorious and emerald and rich. She could see the stones at the bottom and hear the familiar song of water. The world did not deserve such a river.
Markus Zusak
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It’s all very well for such a person to whine and moan and criticize other family members, but they won’t let anyone else do it. That’s when you get your back up and show loyalty.
Markus Zusak
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Five hundred souls. I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the the children I carried in my arms.
Markus Zusak
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You can do anything when it's not real.
Markus Zusak
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We expressed love for this dog by ... knowing without showing that we cared for him.
Markus Zusak
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...to swear with a ferocity that can only be described as a talent.
Markus Zusak
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I think to be writer you have to enjoy being alone. I was a loner as a teenager and was always drawn to characters in books and films who were at the fringes.
Markus Zusak
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Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands.
Markus Zusak
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He watched them grow, until eventually, great forests of words had risen throughout Germany.... It was a nation of farmed thoughts.
Markus Zusak
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The night is alive with stars, and when I lie down and look up, I get lost up there. I feel like I’m falling, but upward, into the abyss of sky above me.
Markus Zusak
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Yes, I'm often reminded of her, and in one of my array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each one extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt - an immense leap of an attempt - to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.
Markus Zusak
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The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.
Markus Zusak
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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
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It's about glowing lights and small things that are big.
Markus Zusak