Quote

He looked the boy up and down as if he had never seen a child before and wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with one: eat it, ignore it or kick it down the stairs.

John Boyne

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Boyne
Age: 53
Born: 1971
Born: April 30
Novelist
Writer
Dublin city
Boys
Wasn
Quite
Stairs
Seen
Kick
Child
Kicks
Sure
Ignore
Children
Supposed
Never
Looked

More quotes by John Boyne

Image
I think that books for young people should have serious and important themes, they shouldn't be trivial. So the books I write, they would be the kind of stories you would write in an adult novel only they just happen to feature a child at the center of them.
John Boyne
Image
I was dropped by my publisher after my first two books. But I always believed in myself.
John Boyne
Image
He suddenly became convinced that if he didn’t do something sensible, something to put his mind to some use, then before he knew it he would be wondering round the streets having fights with himself and inviting domestic animals to social occasions too.
John Boyne
Image
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.
John Boyne
Image
The people I see from my window. In the huts, in the distance. They're all dressed the same.' 'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people...well, they're not people at all, Bruno.' Bruno frowned. 'They're not?' he asked, unsure what Father meant by that.
John Boyne
Image
. . .only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.
John Boyne
Image
What exactly was the difference? he wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?
John Boyne
Image
It occurs to me that even though Zoya and I are both still alive, my life is already over. She will be taken from me soon and there will be no reason for me to continue without her. We are one person, you see. We are GeorgyandZoya.
John Boyne
Image
Sitting around miserable all day won't make you any happier.
John Boyne
Image
It's not easy making a living as a writer, and for many years I worked at a Waterstones in Dublin. It was a good environment for an aspiring writer, with lots of events and authors appearing.
John Boyne
Image
With the adult ones, I feel I need to get as deep inside the psychology of a character as I can, and that needs to be first-person. In the children's books, I feel I need some distance. I don't want to be the nine-year-old at the center of the story. I need to have some type of narrative voice.
John Boyne
Image
War today is such a more visible thing. We see it on television, on CNN. In 1914, war was a concept.
John Boyne
Image
The dot that became a speck that became a blob that became a figure that became a boy
John Boyne
Image
Unless you're very boring, I think most people who've lived long enough have something in their past which will never go away. As a writer, my interest has become in writing about much more emotional, personal topics. I'm trying to reach into subjects I have never written about before.
John Boyne
Image
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.
John Boyne
Image
Bruno: We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?
John Boyne
Image
I hope for so much from every book I read. And time and again, I find myself disappointed. I look across my bookshelves and see hundreds of titles which in my memory seem merely mediocre or second-rate. Only occasionally does a novel appear for which I feel a lasting passion, a book that I think could in time become a classic.
John Boyne
Image
It reminds me of how grandmother always had the right costume for me to wear. You wear the right outfit and you feel like the person you're pretending to be.
John Boyne
Image
You’re my best friend, Shmuel,’ he said. ‘My best friend for life.
John Boyne
Image
I am frustrated by celebrities who decide to write children's books because they think it's easy. That drives me crazy. It's frustrating because it's unfair to children. Because they'll get a lot of attention, they'll get a lot of marketing budget and so on just because they're a celebrity - the Madonnas, the Ricky Gervaises, the Russell Brands.
John Boyne