John Boyne

“I blame Charles Dickens for the death of my father'.”

— John Boyne

Their lost voices Must continue to be heard.

— John Boyne

“In that direction only pain lies.”

— John Boyne

I suppose books are my real passion in life.

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

You’re my best friend, Shmuel,’ he said. ‘My best friend for life.

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

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…

— John Boyne

“I've always believed that if women could only collectively harness the power that they have then they'd rule the world.”

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

“Tengo la sensación de que sólo me limito a respirar. Y existe una diferencia entre respirar y seguir viviendo.”

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

“line came into my mind, something that Hannah Arendt had once said about the poet Auden: that life had manifested the heart’s…

— John Boyne

...Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world…

— John Boyne

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

— John Boyne

There is cruelty in the world Eliza, you can see that, can't you? It surrounds us. It breathes on us. We spend…

— John Boyne

“I think this was a bad idea,’ he repeated. ‘I think the best thing to do would be to forget all about…

— John Boyne

“It's as if she understood completely the condition of loneliness and how it undermines us all, forcing us to make choices that…

— John Boyne

Do you see the irony at all, Tristan?’ I stare at him and shake my head. He seems determined not to speak…

— John Boyne

“It has always astonished me, Georgy Daniilovich, that those who are most repulsed by autocratic or dictatorial rule are among the first…

— John Boyne

“I don’t drink coffee,” she said, taking a sip from her tea. “Coffee is for Americans and Protestants. Irish people should drink…

— John Boyne

I like the idea of standalone novels. I always found with series of books, it's something that publishers love obviously because they…

— John Boyne

Very slowly he turned his head back to look at Shmuel, who wasn't crying anymore, merely staring at the floor and looking…

— John Boyne

The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. This was nothing like the kind of quiet he heard when he…

— John Boyne

I started reading Dickens when I was about 12, and I particularly liked all of the orphan books. I always liked books…

— John Boyne

“I turned to leave and was exiting the gates when I heard the sound of feet running quickly along the gravel behind…

— John Boyne

The thing about exploring is that you have to know whether the thing you've found is worth finding. Some things are just…

— John Boyne

“He's crazy," Bruno said, twirling a finger in circles around the side of his head and whistling to indicate just how crazy…

— John Boyne

“These were colours he'd never ever seen before; ones he couldn't possibly begin to name. Here, to his left, was a wooden…

— John Boyne

Bruno opened his eyes in wonder at the things he saw. In his imagination he had tough that all the huts were…

— John Boyne

“In his imagination he had thought that all the huts were full of happy families, some of whom sat outside on rocking…

— John Boyne

“You fought in the Great War?” a journalist from The Guardian asked me in a long interview to coincide with the presentation…

— John Boyne

“I may not have known much about pregnancies but I knew that you couldn’t have a son or a daughter without actually…

— John Boyne

I don't change the language for children books. I don't make the language simpler. I use words that they might have to…

— John Boyne

“Did I ever tell you that they nearly cut my dick off?’ ‘No,’ I said, uncertain whether this was something that had…

— John Boyne

“Oh, I hate him,' she said, and I noticed a flush of colour come into her cheeks and the manner in which…

— John Boyne