Quotes by John Boyne

John Boyne

. . .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.

Sides

Trying

Way

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

Boys

Immaturity

Years

…Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel’s hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go.

Hands

Holocaust

Letting Go

(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.

Mean

Normal

Ust

And I have tried to forget him, I have tried to convince myself that it was just one of those things, but it’s difficult to do that when my body is standing here, eight feet deep in the earth of northern France, while my heart remains by a stream in a clearing in England where I left it weeks ago.

Eight

Feet

Heart

Bruno opened his eyes in wonder at the things he saw. In his imagination he had tough that all the huts were full of happy families, some of whom sat outside on rocking chairs in the evening and told stories about how things were so much better when they were children and they’d had nowadays. He thought that all the boys and girls who lived there would be in different groups, playing tennis or football, skipping and drawing out squares for hopscotch on the ground. As it turned out, all the things he thought might be there-wern’t.” -The boy in the striped Pajamas

Children

Football

Girl

Bruno: “Why do you wear pajamas all day?” Shmuel: “The soldiers. They took all our clothes away.” Bruno: “My dad’s a soldier, but not the sort that takes people’s clothes away.”

Clothes

Dad

People

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

Enemy

Pajamas

Supposed To Be

But still there are moments when a brother and sister can lay down their instruments of torture for a moment and speak as civilized human beings and Bruno decided to make this one of those moments.

Brother

Moments

Speak

Children’s book writers tend to feel quite superior, and adult writers tend to feel they wouldn’t know how to write a children’s book – which might surprise you because I think a lot of people think it’s the other way around.

Book

Children

Writing

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Alive

America

Animal

Ask Me

Boat

Book

Boys

Breathe

Breathing

Brother

Character

Children

Clothes

Clouds

Cnn

Costumes

Country

Coward

Crazy

Dad

Differences

Different

Distance

Doors

Dots

Dream

Dublin

Eight

Elements

Emotional

Enemy

Events

Father

Feet

Fighting

Figures

Finding Happiness

Firsts

Football

Forget

Friends For Life

Gay

Girl

Grandmother

Growing Up

Hands

Hate

Heard

Heart

Holocaust

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by John Boyne

John Boyne

. . .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.

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

…Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel’s hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go.

(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.

And I have tried to forget him, I have tried to convince myself that it was just one of those things, but it’s difficult to do that when my body is standing here, eight feet deep in the earth of northern France, while my heart remains by a stream in a clearing in England where I left it weeks ago.

Bruno: “Why do you wear pajamas all day?” Shmuel: “The soldiers. They took all our clothes away.” Bruno: “My dad’s a soldier, but not the sort that takes people’s clothes away.”

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

But still there are moments when a brother and sister can lay down their instruments of torture for a moment and speak as civilized human beings and Bruno decided to make this one of those moments.

Children’s book writers tend to feel quite superior, and adult writers tend to feel they wouldn’t know how to write a children’s book – which might surprise you because I think a lot of people think it’s the other way around.

Get Social with TBU

Topics by John Boyne

Popular Tools

The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

Menu

Menu