YouSaid · the spoken record

Markus Zusak

lines on the record: 37
first: 2025-01-31
most recent: 2025-01-31
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Probably earlier in their lives, and it was their stories that taught me how to write. And I think that's the biggest gift that they gave me.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They talk about the last book they loved, and I see them light up when they talk about that and talking to you today. I feel myself light up when I'm telling stories. And so that's, I think, the greatest part of my life. And I owe my whole life to books, really, and that I get to tell stories and then hear other people's stories. And you realize you're halfway through your life as I am now, hopefully. At 49 or 7 squared, as I like to call it, and hopefully there are plenty of great stories ahead as well. But I'm really grateful for the ones that I've got to carry and that I had, you know, I'm the fourth child of my family, the youngest, in that I got to spend time with my parents at a really meaningful age, whereas my siblings got their attention.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me in so many ways that when I first came into writing and publishing, my first book came out in 1999. And it feels like now that was coming to the end of the golden age of books that had lasted centuries, centuries. And the world in the last 20 years since then has changed so much that we could despair. But people have been talking about the death of books forever. And something new comes in. Oh, that's the end of books. And that books have always survived. And I think what a lot of writers are afraid of is maybe their own relevance as writers fading. And I think having this conversation with you and often thinking about this book as well. And I mean, I'm just grateful that I still get to do it. I'm still grateful that people come up to me talking about, and I don't care if it's my book, but they...”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I mean, I could start with the darkness first, which is when you go to your local railway station or something and you just see everybody tapping on their phones and you go, God, how do we become this pathetic? And then every now and again you see someone reading. And I'm not saying people aren't reading on their phones and so on as well, but I'm just so constantly reminded as well that really what we're made of, they're all the physical elements of us, but what we're really made of in my mind is we're just made of stories. And our stories is what make us who we are and how we understand the world and people around us. And when I talk about or sort of acknowledge people who are still engaging with books and carrying the flag, as you say, it always still staggers.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I got to, I often say that Frosty, our new dog, was such a pleasure to have, even though it was really hard to begin with, because he really keeps our other two dogs near. And first, it's just in comparison. We're going, Archie never would have done that. Or he's actually friendlier than Reuben and Archer together. But now it's just, yeah, it's a sense of spirit that, you know, my dog is lying down next to me here. And when I came back tonight to do this in...”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we say, well, someone has to do it. And it's not only that, but we kind of drawn to the underdog image or the not quite accepted image. And that kind of fits into a particular niche or nook in our family that works for us because we know that's where our better story is. And not that we would ever articulate that the way I just did now. It just feels right. And that's kind of why we do it. And in so many ways, you know, I can joke about it now and say, God, all the money and time and energy we spend on those dogs, it's only kind of fitting that, you know, I'm kind of getting something out of it now. And there's a book written about it. And it was a book that was just an absolute joy to write.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And those little quirks or those ideas of language and a love of language. And what I want to, what the point about that Michael Shaven image about the mountain wearing a dinner jacket is to me, that's a guy who's climbed the mountain and done all this hard work during his day. And the promise of that mountain is the promise of a sandpit or a sandbox where you get to just play. And that's someone who's just playing with the woes and going, oh, that's it. But you don't know unless you're willing to take the risk and willing to go there. And our selection process for our dogs is kind of similar in that we're not looking necessarily for something safe. And I'm not saying that makes us courageous in any way. I mean, we've been much smarter getting a purebred dog or something more manageable. But when people have said, I didn't quite understand why you take on these animals.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On that boat. And so I just like that idea of just trying to find something that's purely you. And I remember the best advice my parents ever gave me was I remember losing a race as a kid doing athletics, being really young and thinking that I'd won and I got put in sixth spot and crying to my dad and he said look I think he might have won as well, but here's the thing. You didn't win by enough. You have to win by so much that they can't take it off yet. And now that's how I feel about writing, but not in a sense of winning anything. I think that's just a futile attempt. It's just an act of futility. But I want to write so much like myself that only I could have written that particular book or whatever I'm working on.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“should be punch drunk, and I said, yeah, if it's just left to what you thought it was going to be, and I'm willing to risk you thinking that I'm just wrong. And to me, that's the beauty of it. My favorite line, and I don't know how many times I've said this at a library or a book event or something, I save my favorite line from any novel is from Michael Siobhan's. I never know if I'm saying his last name correctly, but in the amazing adventures of Cavalier and Clay, he describes a big ocean liner coming into New York Harbor. And he says, the Rotterdam came into New York Harbour like a mountain wearing a dinner jacket. And to me, it's so perfectly offbeat that you see it and you see the buttons of a dinner jacket as the little window.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely because I think there's a point where I talk about that first dog, Reuben, where I was resistant to him and then I went, this dog's actually perfect for us in the same way that I'm looking for a word in a sentence that is kind of just left or right of what it should be and kind of willing to be criticized by whoever, a reader, a critic or doesn't matter who the person is. I say, yeah, that's not quite wrong. I remember my dad once reading, I got him to check the German language that I used in the book feed, and he was doing such a good job that he thought he might start correcting the English as well. And there was a moment where I talked about this character, the mayor's wife being hunch drunk at her table. And he said, that's just totally.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And just be with her as a three year old again, be with her as an eight year old again, and see her react to things. And my son as well. And I think so much of our lives is spent in memories like that. And so I just, I love going to those moments where I'm seeing it all and feeling like I'm there all over again. Because it's sort of like that's the life within our life and getting to spend that time with them was, yeah, that was a real pleasure.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Being about my family and about writing in general and the joys and challenges of that and about these animals that were such a family to me as well, it was a real joy and it reminded me of being that 16 year old trying to write my first novel and discovering something new. And so I wasn't as fearful coming to my desk every day. So it was a real release in that way. And so it felt not necessarily like a side project, but just like a different version of me as a writer. And it got me to spend time with these animals that I loved and with people I love too who are still with me. But I got to see my daughter who's eighteen now and about to go to university.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All really, and just staying inside that really helps. And Bridge of Clay has its own structure like that too. And this book was just, okay, I want to keep it really slim. And so it was four parts with five chapters in each part. And just sticking within that always helps me just sort of go, no, no, don't step outside there. You've got to try to make this work somehow. And there are...”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“120 pages and about him being a wrestler and a wrestling coach and I'd wanted to write a book like that maybe 20 years ago it's kind of how I started writing a book thief to tell you the truth it was going to be a really slim book and then I was like that's not quite it but you keep all of these things in the back pocket of your mind somewhere and you think maybe I can use it one day and do something else and so my idea in this case was to try to be really disciplined I really like a safe structure then I think you can be really creative within that and that's why most of my sort of like the second half of my career most of my books have a pretty mathematical structure like the book thief is you know there are there are 10 parts with eight parts in each of those ten parts with four chapters in a prologue and four in an epilogue you know so it's”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Reel on the page and to still be believable because someone still has to make that transformation from not knowing something to knowing it and then believing it. And you could easily say, okay, this was more a case of what to leave out, but that's kind of a lazy answer as well, where you're just saying, oh, there's so much that happens. But that's the same when you're making enough as well. It's just as big a sacrifice what you leave out of a novel as in this case a non-fiction book. But I still approached it in a really similar way to how I write a novel. I was really inspired by John Irving's memoir, The Imaginary Girlfriend, which I really recommend because I feel like it's a great way into his novels. And he even says in it, I write huge novels for this memoir is really slim.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I always wanted, I wanted to be a writer from about when I was 16 years old. And it was when I was reading novels. And I finally understood what was so attractive about it to me. And to me, it was like this magic act of how I forget magicians and do all of the amazing things that they do. To me, this idea that somebody was just making this stuff up and I was believing it while I was in it. And I thought, that's what I want to do with my life. To me, this was the great, yeah, black and white, also black words on a white page. And I'm seeing it all in color. And I feel like I'm there. And that's what I absolutely love about books, but you can also have that in fiction, but also in non-fiction as well. In a way, it's the same magical act. Minus the idea of making it up, I suppose. But in this case, you're still making it up to be”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And just to sort of always feel like I'm there inside it and have it close to me. And part of it is knowing that I'm going to get up and do those things. And so my day isn't complete. I can't really start work without taking the dog out first. And then there are these kids and school and all of that. But just getting to it as much as I can every day. And I'm also, lastly, the kind of writer who I'm either writing or I'm not writing. And to qualify what I'm talking about there is if I'm writing, I'm writing a lot and I'm writing generally quite quickly. And so I'll do that for weeks or months on end and other times I'm doing the other stuff. I sort of coordinate it all off. But a big part is that first early morning wake up. Dog walker, my writing life isn't complete without that.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think one of the big things when people ask me about writing and how to do it and all of those sorts of questions is one of the big things is understanding when you're actually at your best. And for me, I've always been an early riser. And I'm the youngest of four kids. And so I just remember always being the first one up in our house and getting and getting after it. I just, for whatever reason, this is just the most random. Kind of detail. But I just remember getting up on our old looking TV and turning on and scooby-jo. It was on at like 5.30 in the morning. Yeah, solid star to the day. And then my dad would be up getting ready to go to work. And so I understand that I work best in the morning generally. And so that was kind of how Reuben wasn't really, I didn't even.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To is there's something intense about writing a book and there's something intense about being in the natural world with these animals that we can control, but we can never fully control.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A book, I'm waiting to understand the language of that book, which isn't English. It is what the book feels like and kind of what, you know, like you're going there. And even now I'm sort of rubbing, you know, or even feeling at something. It's understanding something so that you know it so well that you could roll out of bed in the morning and land there in that world. And in a way, trying to understand these animals has felt kind of similar. And, you know, and then you lose them. And, you know, people say to me, have said to me, oh, is it really, was that really hard to write about your dogs dying or anything or all of those sorts of questions? And I just say, no, to me, there was even comedy in those tragedies. And there was something glorious about those moments as well because I got to live really intensely. And I think ultimately that's where I'm coming.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're just waiting for that time where you've got an ending in mind where you've plotted all of these moments and then doing the work and showing up to do the work is it's like learning a new language. And I think it's that idea and I think I say in the book that one of the best things that ever happens to you in your life, whether it's being a dog owner or not, but for me, one of the most satisfying things is when you've got this dog and you've got a particular whistle and they understand that. And when that whistle comes, no matter where they are, they start looking around for you and then they just come bolting towards you. And of course, there's nothing worse when they look in that direction and go, well, you know, I'm not coming. I'm just going to do what I want here. And that feels like an ultimate betrayal. But I think that's constantly what I'm looking for when I'm riding.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That took me 13 years to write a book after my most successful book. And I think whether that was pre-ordained or whatever, I knew that was always going to be my hardest book. But I guess it's that idea of I remember walking my two dogs in the dark of really early morning. And that's when all the problem dog owners are out there. And in a way, it's a little bit like being a rider because a lot of your work gets done in the dark and you're always looking around for the light switch where you go, oh, that's it now. That's the way to go. And you're alone a lot of the time too. And so I think there's something solitary about being out there in the world with your dog or dogs in my case. And anything can happen at any point. And I guess it can be a terrible thing, but it can also be a beautiful thing. And in the case of riding a book,”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The analogy of whenever you say a house being built somewhere, and especially if it's in a small town or something and people are very protective of the area and everyone's going, well, I don't know about this. Look at that, that looks terrible. It's because you're only halfway through it. And so I think there was always this idea with our dogs that were, oh, we've just turned the corner. We've just turned the corner. The light is just up ahead. And then that is exactly when something would happen. And I think the idea of, I think it's just that, I guess that idea of this too shall pass. And with these animals, it was not necessarily, I guess there was a fear of what could always happen because they essentially were wild animals being domesticated. And I think it's no secret to some people.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think. It's a really good way to talk about, I hope it's a really good metaphor or analogy is I think talking about it just the other day to a friend where I just said, I kind of feel like I've spent my life trying to tame wild animals. And in this case, the actual physical dogs, but also try to make a book work is like trying to tame an animal. And I'm not saying, you know,”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sort of thing. But at the same time, I'm thinking, okay, you've got to be truthful about that. And again, sometimes that's when the visceral part of yourself comes out because you're connecting with these animals on their level and not being polite, just kind of being truthful above everything else.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Momentous thing that has happened, but is it only such because you're on here to see it or we're on here to see it? Is it only a terrible thing? And so I really, you know, because of that. And so I just, I wanted to write a book that was true in that sense as well and even showing not necessarily the nicest side of ourselves where even, and I don't think it's a spoiler. So you're right at the start of the book. But just frosty when we got this dog was he just didn't know how to behave in a social setting when we walked him on the street and he was attacking us every time we walked in because he wanted to get to so many things and we were in the way and so I had to have it out on him, have it out with him on the street. And, you know, and you'll get people just, and that happens several times. And, you know, there can be so many judgments made about that stuff.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I didn't know I was going to go on this tangent. I'm sorry, but my attitude to cockroaches is essentially look. Gonna help them out of you if I can because you know they're just trying to make their way in the world, you know, they're just trying to make an honest buck, they're just doing what they do. And so my idea is here, go let them outside and yet, so this idea of when it comes to diets, whether we're talking about meat eating, vegetarianism, veganism and things like that, it's pretty hard to lecture when we live a certain way and we're looking after these animals, but we feed them other animals. And that idea, when you're out in a field in the middle of the city and your dog goes for a possum or even like leaps up for a bird, they're sort of showing you that there's so much, there is chaos in the world and that we can try to control that as much as we can. And if your dog kills something, let's say, and it feels like such a...”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And to get back to the question of taking you to ideas of the physical world. And when you see there are hard truths, and I think as well, even just talking about that now is there are certain incidents, obviously, that happen in the book where I'm sort of not questioning, but starting to understand my relationship to these animals, their relationship to other animals, and where that all fits in. And I'm really conscious of not lecturing or not having these ideals about being an animal lover and all of that because it's pretty tricky. And we wrestle as well in our family with the idea of what we eat. You know, you claim to be an animal lover. I mean, even last night we had a bit of an argument when there was a cockroach in our house. And my attitude to cockroaches.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But then we also want something visceral as well. And I think we want a bit of mess because, you know, that's kind of without hopefully sounding toys that we're going to find something of ourselves within that. Not even the idea of coming out the other side, but kind of while we're there. And so ideas of the physical world, like one story that doesn't even make it into the book is however that our new dog, you know, he has a pension. He's definitely got a hunting gene in him. And so I've been down on a remote beaches down here in Australia where I've literally pulled him off kangaroos. And it's one of those things where you come back along the beach and you go, oh my God, is that my stripe at full sprint?”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I often say that that kind of mirrors to my own inner turmoils. And also an attraction to chaos. And I think as humans, we're attracted to chaos and the idea that that's actually where our stories are, our best stories are. After all, why do we do these things? Why do we take in whether it's a purebred dog or whether it's a cat or any kind of animal or why do we have children or why do we take on more work than we should? Why do we coach an unruly football team? And I've done all of those things and there were times when I absolutely regretted it in all of those stories that I've met or those ideas that I've mentioned. And so I think that's the first part of it is that we all claim to want control and order in our lives.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think they're probably home lunch. And so people have often said, thought we had a couple of moments where people said, you've got to get rid of these dogs. And we were just, no, they're a part of our soul and it's up to us to get this right.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we just have all sorts of great, terrible, amazing, tragic, glorious moments within our lives. And that's how my kids grew up. And I still hold to this memory of my three-year-old daughter at the time walking this big beast of a dog. And I'd be walking him. And then I'd say to the dog, I mean, he wasn't Einstein, but he was pretty intelligent. And I'd say to him, hey, Rude, Kitty's walking in now. And I just love that this big dog would turn around, look and go, all right, I've got it. And then he'd slow his walking pace to match hers. And so, you know, this is the same dog who didn't necessarily recognize Noah, our son, as human when we brought him home from hospital and lunged at him as if he's like, I think this.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Visual and Brutus. And one of them ruled the house, even ruled the dogs, and one of them was a bit scared of the dogs. And within that pattern, then we brought Archer, who was also a street dog. And he was like Marilyn Munro on a downer. And he was so beautiful. And yet you'd see it had a really scarred life. And so, you know, that, you know, and our children grew up with these, like surrounded by these animals. And even just little things like saying to them even now, so what's the number one skill to know when it comes to any animal you see, whether it's a wild animal or someone's Pomeranian? And even now, you know, they sort of roll their eyes a bit and they say, the number one thing is to know where to leave them alone. And so it's just this.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I can, well, I might do a start with the humans. So I've got Mika and my wife and my two kids, Kitty and Noah. And what we describe as animal people within that subcategory that we're dog people. But we had started with having two cats and then we brought Ruben this particular dog who was sort of hyena-like or sort of described him. It was like the first metaphor that I ever heard in my life was it's raining cats and dogs. And I sort of like the idea of, yeah, but what if there's just a massive cyclone or hurricane and it delivers just one dog or worse than that? It just washes out a mountainside and out of the mud climbs this dog. He was a kind of mythical creature and a great animal and I think the spirit animal of our family. And then so the cats were called.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's like there are all these volcanoes hanging around you, and there are all these little fires within them that just not quite the right one to set it all off. And in this case, it was having our third dog, Frosty, come into our lives and such an innocent name, but he was definitely a wild dog and he was just certain moments that I had with him and I went, oh, that's how you ride it.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So many things that they don't remember everything. So make sure you write it down. And he said, yeah, I'm absolutely going to do that. So the origin story was exactly that. It was when one dog died, then the second dog died, and then we had a third dog come in to our lives. And he was the conductor to write the story because I have a lot of problems starting a book. And here you have all these false starts. And I like the idea that you've got all these attempts that didn't quite work and then something happens that pulls you back into it. And in this case, it was the third dog. And I think when I started writing this book before, because I had made certain attempts at it, several attempts and they didn't quite work. And you're just thinking, for another day, it's for another day. And what I realized is I just didn't have the voice. And the way I often describe it.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think it's when sometimes people just tell you you've got to write this. And in my case, people have been telling me, oh, you've got to write about your dogs quiet a few times over the last decade and a half. And mostly my wife actually, and she can take a lot of credit for this. And when our first dog died, she said, oh, you've got to write about Ruben. He had such an epic kind of life and write it for yourself, but write it for him, but also you just don't want to forget these stories. And you don't want to, and I just said to someone, a friend of mine who lost his 16 or 17 year old dog, he only told me a couple of days ago that he lost the dog. And he said, I'm trying to write it down. I can't write. I'm not a good writer. I said, that doesn't matter. Half the time, neither am I. I said, but humans remember.”
2025-01-31 · Intelligence Squared · Markus Zusak: From The Book Thief to Three Wild Dogs · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT