<p>This paper explores the interactions of absolute continuity of the (quasi)norm with the concepts that are fundamental in the theory of rearrangement-invariant (quasi-)Banach function spaces, such as the Luxemburg representation or the Hardy–Littlewood–Pólya relation. In order to prove our main results, we give an explicit construction of a particularly suitable representation quasinorm (which is not necessarily unique) and develop several new tools that we believe to be of independent interest. As an application of our results, we characterise the subspace of functions having absolutely continuous quasinorms in weak Marcinkiewicz spaces.</p>