The spectral lines of very far objects are always shifted towards the red end of the spectra due to the expansion of the Universe which causes the more distant objects to flee with the apparently greater speeds, corresponding to the higher observed redshifts. Possibly with the elusive gamma ray bursts quasars with the highest redshifts are, in fact, the most distant individual objects ever detected. Only the cosmic microwave radiation that uniformly fills the whole space, comes from still greater distances. The cosmic microwave radiation originated in the incredibly hot and dense Big Bang at the beginning of time. Today, more than ten billion years after the Big Bang, it is diluted and redshifted by the Universe expansion to a very low temperature, just slightly less than three degrees above the absolute zero.
Quasars reside at the centres of galaxies.
About every one in ten galaxies hosts a quasar or a similar, but in most cases a less powerful, object. The total energy output of a quasar often exceeds that of some hundred billion stars combined, and comes from a small region of about one light hour across. One light hour is not much in a galaxy. Such a distance is more typical of planetary systems. For example, in our Solar system this is about the radius of Saturn's orbit.