Quotes from John Boyne

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.

If there's one thing I've learned in more than seven decades of life, it's that the world is a completely fucked-up place. You never know what's around the corner and it's often something unpleasant.

It's not easy losing someone," she said. "It never goes away, does it?" "The Phantom Pain, they call it," I said. "Like amputees get when they can still feel their missing limbs.

I've known violence, I've known bigotry. I've known shame and I've known love. And somehow, I always survive.

A line came into my mind, something that Hannah Arendt had once said about the poet Auden: that life had manifested the heart's invisible furies on his face. He looked a hundred years old. He looked like a man who had died several months earlier. He looked like a soul in pure torment.

Não", disse Bruno rapidamente, pois sempre tentava ser honesto e sabia que, se hesitasse mesmo que por um momento, não teria mais coragem de dizer o que pensava.

Não torne as coisas piores, pensando que dói mais do que você realmente está sentindo.

Algumas coisas estão lá, cuidando da própria vida, esperando para serem descobertas. Como a América. Outras coisas é melhor que deixemos em paz. Como um rato morto no fundo do armário.

peaceful in the knowledge that a long and happy relationship negates the need for constant chatter. Zoya and I had long perfected the art of sitting silently in each other's company for hours on end, while never running out of things to say.

E' la storia che ci ha condotto fin qui. Se non fosse per la storia, nessuno di noi oggi sarebbe seduto a questa tavola. Saremmo tranquillamente seduti nella nostra casa di Berlino. Stiamo correggendo la storia, qui.

O menino apenas olhava para o chão, dando a impressão de que tentava convencer sua alma a não mais habitar o pequeno corpo e a fugir pela janela e voar bem alto até o céu, indo o mais longe possível.

I'm seven,' said Pierrot, sitting up straight, mortally offended.

La tonta de remate

No, not them,' said Bruno. '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.

Heil Hitler,' zei hij, wat, voor zover hij wist, een andere manier was om te zeggen 'Tot ziens en een prettige dag verder'.

An old man should not resent those who are sent to take his place, and to recall when I was young and healthy and virile is an act of masochism that serves no purpose.

Accept the situation in which you find yourself and everything will be so much easier.

Você é o meu melhor amigo, Shmuel. Meu melhor amigo para a vida toda.

Naturally, I have grown to recognize some of my fellow visitors, the widows and widowers in waiting who wander the corridors in terrified loneliness, deprived for the first time in decades of their favourite person.

Heil Hitler

My great fear when Caden was born was that he would remind me of my brother

We had arrived in a strange country to start our lives over again, and every possession that we acquired from that moment forward would reference this new existence. Indeed, we had brought nothing at all from our old lives, except each other. But that, I believed, would surely be enough.

He put his face to the glass and saw what was out there, and this time when his eyes opened wide and his mouth made the shape of an O, his hands stayed by his sides because something made him feel very cold and unsafe.

And, you'll forgive me for sounding immodest, but i know that i'm good-looking. Throughout my life, both men and women have made their interest in me obvious. But I can't control any of that. It was simply the way I was born. Ultimately, it means nothing. I could have a heart of stone for all they know. I could be a psychopath or a sociopath. Not all monsters look like the Elephant Man, and not everyone who looks like the Elephant Man is a monster.