John Boyne quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by John Boyne

John Boyne Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from John Boyne on Wise Famous Quotes.

His position, like so many of his ilk, was one of uncontested and unearned respect.

It's a wonderful thing to write for children.

There is cruelty in the world Eliza, you can see that, can't you?
It surrounds us. It breathes on us. We spend our life trying to escape it.

Pavel is not a doctor any more, Bruno' said Maria quietly. 'But he was. In another life. Before he came here

He decided to talk to the Hopeless Case

People try to glorify war, particularly those who aren't actually fighting in them. People tend to make heroes of those who are fighting in them.

Both boys stayed very quiet for a few minutes, neither one wanting to say anything he might regret.

I wrote my first book at 20, but my whole focus from about the age of 12 was to be a writer.

He didn't want to play football. He wanted to be told the truth.

What exactly was the difference? he wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?

A man was standing at the end of the hallway, just outside an open door, from where a great light shone, illuminating him almost as a god.

Nine-year-old boys usually turn ten at some point. It's the nineteen-year-olds who have difficulty turning twenty.

A home is not a building or a street or a city or something so artificial as bricks and mortar. A home is where one's family is ...

Heil Hitler," he said, which, he presumed, was another way of saying, "Well, goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon.

Leaving me an orphan like those characters I had spoken of the night before, if one can truly be called an orphan at twenty-one years of age.

Sitting around miserable all day won't make you any happier.

Neither your mother nor I have any imagination at all and we certainly didn't bring you up to have one

Those people ... well, they're not people at all, Bruno

I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer should write about being gay.

Children's authors don't talk down or patronise their younger readers.

It is possible, you know, to drift off to an unknown world and find happiness there. Maybe even more happiness than you've ever known before.

I think perhaps the adults we become are formed in childhood and there's no way around it.

Bruno. 'In Berlin we had a big house with five floors if you counted the

We don't have the luxury of thinking ... Some people make all the decisions for us

I can't bear to be on a train without a book", she announced. " It's a form of self-defence in a way" .

I think i'm just breathing, that's all. And there's a difference between breathing and being alive.

the ground for I know not how long. Of course

Do you think ... ?
'I do sometimes, my boy,'admitted the old man. 'When I can't avoid it.

It's the countryside. Perhaps this is our holiday home.

Life is suffering. Until the great day of judgement, when peace and equanimity may be restored for those who are pure of heart and deed.

War today is such a more visible thing. We see it on television, on CNN. In 1914, war was a concept.

Let's just hope we get to come back here someday when all this is over

In his heart, he knew that there was no reason to be impolite to someone, even if they did work for you. There was such a thing as manners after all.

Other things are probably better off left alone. Like a dead mouse at the back of a cupboard.

I don't understand why we're not allowed on the oder side of the fence. What's so wrong with us that we can't go there and play?

Their lost voices Must continue to be heard.

What makes a classic is difficult to define. It's entirely subjective, of course. And the term is employed far too promiscuously.

Bruno: We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?

Well you've been brought here against your will, just like I have. If you ask me, we're all in the same boat. And it's leaking.

I move between the two: I write an adult novel, and then I write a children's book. I quite enjoy that. It's a nice change of pace each time.

Here's a tip though', he told me, leaning over and pressing a hand into my shoulder. 'If you want to improve your time, run faster.

I was dropped by my publisher after my first two books. But I always believed in myself.

Bruno was jealous, he had to wear stupid pants en shoes while the boys at the other side of the fence were wearing nice pyjamas al day long

One single syllable of intimacy and the world is put to rights.

Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.

Should women read, Miss Caine? There's a question for you. Does it excite them too much?

Because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.' Bruno

But they'd never once invited any of the striped pyjama people to dinner.

And been committed to a home for the bewildered

It's a big world, isn't it?' said Georgie. 'Do you think they hate each other on other planets too?

Some things are just sitting there, waiting to be discovered. Other things are probably better off left alone

I am opposed to war, to killing people, to any kind of hatred and violence.

Retractable roof, a pair of black, white and red

There's things that happen in a person's life that are so scorched in the memory and burned into the heart that there's no forgetting them.

Just don't ever tell yourself that you didn't know ... That would be the worst crime of all.

Gretel: Not the type of children I want to play with.
Bruno: I could come over on a visit and no one would be any the wiser.

Unless you're very boring, I think most people who've lived long enough have something in their past which will never go away.

I never really noticed it any more, in the way that one often ignores familiar things, like seat cushions or loved ones.

(J)ust because your version of normal isn't the same as someone else's version doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.

Of course all this happened a long time ago. And nothing like that could happen again, not in this day and age.

I suppose books are my real passion in life.

In that direction only pain lies.

I can remember being eight, and I like writing about that age of innocence when children still have a sense of wonder.

Don't make it worse by thinking it's more painful than it actually is.

The dot that became a speck that became a blob that became a figure that became a boy

I have always been a lover of the sun, even if, through spending a lifetime in Ireland, I have had little personal connection with it.

When he closed his eyes, everything around him just felt empty and cold, as if he was in the loneliest place in the world. The middle of nowhere.