22 January 2025

Markus Zusak: “You have to win by so much that they can’t take it off you”

The author on Neil Young and wanting to have watched Michelangelo create the statue of David.

Markus Zusak was born in 1975 in Sydney. He is an award-winning author, best known for his 2005 novel The Book Thief which was adapted into a film of the same name in 2013.

What’s your earliest memory?

The smell of paint in my dad’s Kombi van. His dad was a house painter, he was a house painter, my brother’s a house painter… Either that or getting very, VERY agitated playing the game Trouble with three of my older, gloating siblings when I was four.

Who are your heroes?

In childhood it was Peter Sterling: Australian rugby league great and a good human (it happens). As an adult? Neil Young and the guy who plays Mr Collins in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice. Pure genius.

What book last changed your thinking?

It was Australia Day by Stan Grant: a searingly beautiful love letter to our country, in hopes of facing our past.

What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?

World surfing champions of the 1980s, both men and women.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

When I was very young, I thought I won a sprint at athletics and I was placed sixth. When I cried, my dad said, “I thought you won too, but you made one mistake – you didn’t win by enough. You have to win by so much that they can’t take it off you.” It’s stayed with me in writing, but not in terms of winning – more just that whatever the book, the only goal is to write so much like myself that no one else could have written it.

What’s your theme tune?

Anything by Johnny Cash – my mum’s hero.

What political figure do you look up to?

Paul Keating, Australian prime minister from 1991 to 1996. Was he surly? Sure. But he didn’t mind making the right decisions even if they were unpopular. He also produced great one-liners, such as: “Poor old Costello – he’s all tip and no iceberg.”

In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?

I’d have loved to watch Michelangelo create the statue of David – and confirm if he really explained his process like this: “Well, I just chipped off the parts that didn’t look like David.”

What TV show could you not live without?

Maybe The West Wing or Friday Night Lights, but I’m going with The Young Ones. For a while there, quoting it with my brother was our chief form of communication.

Who would paint your portrait?

Any six-year-old will do. At that age, there are no rules.

What’s currently bugging you?

Being at Town Hall Station in Sydney and seeing every single person tapping on their phone. God, how did we become this pathetic?

What single thing would make your life better?

Writing with at least 33 per cent less doubt.

When were you happiest?

When I’m writing consistently and feel like I could roll out of bed and land in that other world. That’s when I do everything else better, too.

In another life, what job might you have chosen?

A house painter or a dog-walker. Although, some people wouldn’t be happy with the latter after reading my latest book…

Are we all doomed?

Oh yeah, but we’ve always known that. I guess the wise human knows when to fight, and when to follow Walter’s advice from The Big Lebowski: “F**k it, man. Let’s go bowling.”

Markus Zusak’s “Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth)” is published by Pan Macmillan

[See also: What is Labour in power for?]