John Boyne Quote

The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. This was nothing like the kind of quiet he heard when he woke up in the middle of the night after a bad dream. When that happened, there were always strange, unidentifiable sounds seeping into his room from the tiny gaps where the windowpanes weren't sealed together correctly. At those moments he could always tell there was life outside, even if all that life was fast asleep. It was a silence that wasn't silence at all.

John Boyne

The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. This was nothing like the kind of quiet he heard when he woke up in the middle of the night after a bad dream. When that happened, there were always strange, unidentifiable sounds seeping into his room from the tiny gaps where the windowpanes weren't sealed together correctly. At those moments he could always tell there was life outside, even if all that life was fast asleep. It was a silence that wasn't silence at all.

Related Quotes

About John Boyne

John Boyne (born 30 April 1971) is an Irish author, novelist, and writer. He is the author of sixteen novels for adults, six novels for younger readers, two novellas, and one collection of short stories. Boyne's historical novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, first published in 2006, was adapted into a 2008 film of the same name. As of 2022, the book has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. It has also been translated into 58 languages, and a sequel, All the Broken Places, was published in 2022.