Frank Cottrell Boyce > Quotes

“There are more stars than there are people. Billions, Alan had said, and millions of them might have planets just as good as ours. Ever since I can remember, I’ve felt too big. But now I felt small. Too small. Too small to count. Every star is massive, but there are so many of them. How could anyone care about one star when there were so many spare? And what if stars were small? What if all the stars were just pixels? And earth was less than a pixel? What does that make us? And what does that make me? Not even dust. I felt tiny. For the first time in my life I felt too small.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“We walked on the moon. We made footprints somewhere no one else had ever made footprints, and unless someone comes and rubs them out, those footprints will be there forever because there’s no wind.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“Gravity is not a trivial monster.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“And in that moment, I felt my own ignorance spread suddenly out behind me like a pair of wings, and every single thing I didn’t know was a feather on those wings. I could feel them tugging at the air, restless to be airborne.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, The Unforgotten Coat

“What's Batman's superpower? He hasn't got one. He's just got a lot of gear. Cars and boomerangs and super-lightweight climbing equipment. Which he bought because he's rich. Batman's superpower is cash.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce

“Low gravity Monopoly is better than the Monopoly you play round the kitchen table, in that it only lasts a few minutes.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce

“Where's Dorothy?" Dad said.
"I don't know. She came in, took the money and went. I don't even know how she got in."
"What did she say?"
"She said "shush""
"And what did you say?"
"I shushed”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions: An Unforgettable Novel for Kids (Ages 8-12) about Two Brothers with a Bag of Cash and Fast-Closing Crooks

“You don’t have to have a home to get homesick. You just have to want one. The whole history of your wee planet is nothing but people looking for a home.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

“Oh. My. God.’ she said, pointing out of the window. ‘Do you know what that is?’

I nodded and said, ‘I think I may have seen it before.’

‘That,’ said Florida, ‘is the Moonyouidiot.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce

“Without even looking at me, he swiped the scissors out of his belt and flung them across the room. They flashed through the air and stuck, shivering, deep in the wood of the door, right next to my head. I held my breath. “I never miss.” He grinned. “Unless I mean to.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

“Personally, I think, so what? Money's just a thing and things change. That's what I've found. One minute something's really there, right next to you, and you can cuddle up to it. The next it just melts away, like a Hershey's kiss.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce

“They thought he was a dog. If you say "dangerous dog," folk think you're talking about a dog that bites, not someone who hands out deadly weapons at children's parties.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

“Today, I live in France. We have been made utterly welcome by our French neighbours, who, if the subject arises, can only scratch their heads in utter bemusement at why we would want to leave this union. I try to explain, but in order to really understand, you have to be British. Or rather, not British, but a certain English sort – that peculiar, insular, self-aggrandising mentality that cannot see past the White Cliffs of Kent. I have never understood that,”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, A Love Letter to Europe: An outpouring of sadness and hope – Mary Beard, Shami Chakrabati, Sebastian Faulks, Neil Gaiman, Ruth Jones, J.K. Rowling, Sandi Toksvig and others

“Jem tugged the floral curtains open just above Mum's bed. She stretched and said, "Oh!" because there is something especially cosy about pulling open floral curtains in your camper van and finding the Mediterranean Sea shining hundreds of feet below you and seabirds twirling all around you. Especially if the kettle has just boiled.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

“There is no patron saint of estate agents because no estate agent has ever become a saint. There have been saints who were sailors, blacksmiths, soldiers, bakers, teachers, housewives, swineherds, kings even. But in the whole of history, not one estate agent ever became a saint or even a blessed. It makes you think.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions: An Unforgettable Novel for Kids (Ages 8-12) about Two Brothers with a Bag of Cash and Fast-Closing Crooks

“I'd completely forgotten about it. But I saw it now. Spelled out across the lunar surface, two words -- "Hello, Dad!"

I was grinning all over my face. I whispered, "Hello," into the phone. I was assuming that she'd written it for me. Now I come to think about it, maybe she was saying hello to the other dad, the one who'd left.

My dad looked across at me. He looked puzzled. Like he knew it had something to do with me. I said, "Hello, Dad." And he looked even more confused. When he hears this story maybe he'll think I got them to write it there for him. And maybe he'll be right. Maybe it was for both of us, and for other dads too. For all the dads on Earth. And for all the dads not on Earth. And for their dads, outwards in space and backwards in time, all the way to the Dad of the Universe.

And looking out into the space, it sends a greeting from Earth to the Universe. Hello, Dad.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“I'm talking about how to stay in one piece. Try to get hold of the things that are important, the good and true things about your life. Up there is some kind of lovely. And maybe you need to have something in your heart, you know, something even more lovely. To help you find your way home. Otherwise maybe you could be beguiled." (Spoken by character Alan Bean)”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“bugger.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

“I looked at them all. 'You can't spend your life up here.'"

"The moment I said it I remembered Alan saying tat in a way he HAD spent his life up here, That his memories of the Moon were so bright and vivid that the things he did on Earth seemed grey by comparison. And I thought how completely cosmic it would be if I could fix that for them. If I could make it so that part of them was always up here. So that when they were back on Earth and their dads were yelling and pushing them on, they could just tune out and come back up here, where -- in their brightest memories -- they would always be kids.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“What I remember is being on the moon. I remember every second. Every stone. Every star we saw. Sometimes it feels like I never really came back." - spoken by character Alan Bean”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

“You little belter,’ she whooped. I took that as a compliment.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce

“The thing that makes you different from everyone else--that's your superpower”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, The Astounding Broccoli Boy

“Like about ten times in each episode, which means that if you were watching it on Cartoon Network, he might say it like fifty times before breakfast.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Framed: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

“ROVER 3500 V8”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Framed: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

“shouldn’t”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Framed: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

“Sometimes something vanishes, and afterwards you can’t stop looking at the place where it used to be.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Framed: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

“He handed me one of the leaflets. It was a picture of our old house. Underneath, it said it was a character property with surviving period details, inc fire surround, in a settled residential area. Two bedrooms, two reception, kitchen and separate utility room. And that was it. Nothing about us or what happened there. You wouldn't know it was our house except for the address.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions: An Unforgettable Novel for Kids (Ages 8-12) about Two Brothers with a Bag of Cash and Fast-Closing Crooks

“It’s like this. You go off on an adventure. Then you come home. Right? Well that’s what the universe is doing now. Ever since the Big Bang, it’s been heading off into the unknown on its adventure. But the day will come when it will all go back to the beginning. Everything will come home. Everything that was broken will be fixed. Everything that was forgotten will be remembered. It’ll be like the biggest reverse dynamite explosion ever. And then we’ll all be back together again and we’ll be home again.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

“a tiger gargling treacle.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, The Astounding Broccoli Boy: From the UK Children's Laureate 2024–2026

“Our reflections walked through them like ghosts that couldn’t play.”
― Frank Cottrell Boyce, The Astounding Broccoli Boy: A Hilarious Middle Grade Superhero Novel About Turning Green for Children