Top 450 Bonnie Garmus Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “Families required constant maintenance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

202. “In addition to the receptive learning technique, Elizabeth had been reading aloud to him, long ago replacing simple children’s books with far weightier texts. “Reading aloud promotes brain development,” she’d told him, quoting a research study she’d read. “It also speeds vocabulary accumulation.” It seemed to be working because, according to her notebook, he now knew 391 words.”

— Bonnie Garmus

203. “When it came to equality, 1952 was a real disappointment.”

— Bonnie Garmus

204. “As any non-rower can tell you, rowers are not fun. This is because rowers only ever want to talk about rowing.”

— Bonnie Garmus

205. “We both know food is the catalyst that unlocks our brains, binds our families, and determines our futures.”

— Bonnie Garmus

206. “It was the seventh time that week someone felt compelled to inform her that her life was about to change and she was sick of it. She’d lost her job, her research, bladder control, a clear view of her toes, restful sleep, normal skin, a pain-free back, not to mention all the little assorted freedoms everyone else who is not pregnant takes for granted – like being able to fit behind a steering wheel. The only thing she’d gained? Weight.”

— Bonnie Garmus

207. “Smart woman,” Walter said. “I don’t have a lot of friends either.” Actually, he thought to himself, he only had one: Elizabeth Zott. And she wasn’t just a friend, she was his best friend.”

— Bonnie Garmus

208. “Chop the rosemary,” Elizabeth was saying quietly in the background, “with the sharpest knife you have. This minimizes damage to the plant and avoids excess electrolyte leakage.”

— Bonnie Garmus

209. “It’s just that we tend to treat pregnancy as the most common condition in the world – as ordinary as stubbing a toe – when the truth is, it’s like getting hit by a truck. Although obviously a truck causes less damage.”

— Bonnie Garmus

210. “Because while musical prodigies are always celebrated, early readers aren’t.”

— Bonnie Garmus

211. “Pregnancy is a normal condition. It is not disgraceful. It is how every human being starts.” “How dare you,” he said, his voice rising. “A woman telling me what pregnancy is. Who do you think you are?” She seemed surprised by the question. “A woman,” she said.”

— Bonnie Garmus

212. “They lay silently, both wading in the misery of their pasts.”

— Bonnie Garmus

213. “Elizabeth continued to sit silently. Against her better judgment, she felt herself warming to the idea. She didn’t want to: she didn’t like the notion that systems had to be outsmarted. Why couldn’t they just be smart in the first place? And she certainly didn’t like favors. Favors smacked of cheating. And yet she had goals, and dammit, why should she just sit by? Sitting by never got anyone anywhere.”

— Bonnie Garmus

214. “Because unlike adults, her visitor never tired of even the smallest discovery; always saw the magic in the ordinary.”

— Bonnie Garmus

215. “That’s when someone in the audience asked for an example of an ineffective collision – something that lacked energy and never changed, but still had a big effect. Evans had leaned into his microphone. “Religion,” he said. Then he got up and left.”

— Bonnie Garmus

216. “Just like after her brother’s suicide and Meyers’s attack, she could not cry. An army of tears lay just behind her eyes, but they refused to decamp.”

— Bonnie Garmus

217. “Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change.”

— Bonnie Garmus

218. “She’d felt this way her entire life. She’d been defined not by what she did, but by what others had done... she was never just Elizabeth Zott.”

— Bonnie Garmus

219. “They either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just treat her as a fellow.”

— Bonnie Garmus

220. “Are you sad, honey?” Mad placed her small, chalky hands on either side of her mother’s face. “No. But you are.”

— Bonnie Garmus

221. “Almost no one bought this story. Dr. Meyers had a reputation.”

— Bonnie Garmus

222. “What’s wrong with believing in ourselves? Anyway, if stories must be used, why not rely on a fable or fairy tale? Aren’t they just as valid a vehicle for teaching morality? Except maybe better? Because no one has to pretend to believe that the fables and tales are true?”

— Bonnie Garmus

223. “Calvin was a brilliant man, but if he had one flaw, it was his ability to hold a grudge.”

— Bonnie Garmus

224. “But as the years wore on, he began to feel like he was the prisoner permanently assigned to digging the escape tunnel. At the end of the day, as the other prisoners scrambled over him to freedom, he stayed behind with the spoon.”

— Bonnie Garmus

225. “She’d recently read about some country where both parents worked and took part in raising the children. Where was that, again? Sweden? She couldn’t remember. But the upshot was, it functioned very well. Productivity was higher; families were stronger.”

— Bonnie Garmus

226. “If Mozart had been born to a poor family in Bombay instead of a cultured one in Salzburg, would he have composed Symphony no. 36 in C? Not a chance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

227. “We’ve accomplished a lot together in the last two years. Hundreds of meals, if you can believe that. But supper isn’t all we’ve made, ladies. We’ve also made history.”

— Bonnie Garmus

228. “Science has big problems to solve: famine, disease, extinction. And those who purposefully close the door to others using self-serving, outdated cultural notions are not only dishonest, they’re knowingly lazy.”

— Bonnie Garmus

229. “She was going to do something so revolutionary, so necessary, that her name – despite a never-ending legion of naysayers – would be immortalized.”

— Bonnie Garmus

230. “Sometimes I understand why my brother left,” she admitted quietly. “After everything that’s happened, sometimes I feel like I want out, too.” “I get that,” Wakely said, thinking of how damaging the Life article was. “Believe me. But that’s not really your problem. It’s not that you want out.” She turned to look at him, confused. “It’s that you want back in.”

— Bonnie Garmus

231. “I fell in love with Calvin,” she was saying, “because he was intelligent and kind, but also because he was the very first man to take me seriously. Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize. Marriage counselors would go out of business.”

— Bonnie Garmus

232. “When faced with a serious problem, he’d found it helped to eat.”

— Bonnie Garmus

233. “Apparently, she tried to put in a request for The Naked and the Dead.”

— Bonnie Garmus

234. “Every last trace of Calvin had been scrubbed away. He watched as she stood in the middle of the room, her face blank with shock.”

— Bonnie Garmus

235. “I used to tell myself every day was new. That anything could happen.”

— Bonnie Garmus

236. “People like my father preach love, but are filled with hate. Anyone who threatens their narrow beliefs can not be tolerated. They day my Mother caught my brother holding hands with another boy, that was it. After a year of hearing he was an aberration and didn’t deserve to live, he went out to the shed with a rope.”

— Bonnie Garmus

237. “Elizabeth Zott,” she said, moving past the stork to the receptionist. “For Dr. Mason.” “You’re late,” the receptionist said icily. “I’m five minutes early,” Elizabeth corrected, checking her watch. “There’s paperwork,” the woman informed her, handing over a clipboard. Husband’s place of work. Husband’s telephone number. Husband’s insurance. Husband’s age. Husband’s bank account number. “Who’s having the baby here?” she asked.”

— Bonnie Garmus

238. “Because as a producer, he was part of Phil’s management team, and that meant he was responsible for pushing Phil’s agenda while ignoring those who ultimately paid the price for.”

— Bonnie Garmus

239. “Still, he sensed that most people did not listen to their dogs. This was called ignoring. Or wait, no. Ignorance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

240. “You can’t fix it because the world doesn’t work that way. Life isn’t fair.”

— Bonnie Garmus

241. “The only excitement had come at the beginning but it had worn off like cheap nail polish.”

— Bonnie Garmus

242. “He’d never really considered that a family could actually be the hard times.”

— Bonnie Garmus

243. “Believe me. But that’s not really your problem. It’s not that you want out.” She turned to look at him, confused. “It’s that you want back in.”

— Bonnie Garmus

244. “Constant adaptations brought about by a series of never-ending mistakes?”

— Bonnie Garmus

245. “It was another thing Six-Thirty loved about her: her constant state of outrage.”

— Bonnie Garmus

246. “She thought about the note her mother had left in her lunch box that morning. The librarian is the most important educator in school. What she doesn’t know, she can find out. This is not an opinion; it’s a fact. Do not share this fact with Mrs. Mudford. But.”

— Bonnie Garmus

247. “The words fit snugly, like laces knotted twice.”

— Bonnie Garmus

248. “When we make food, we don’t just create something good to eat – we create something that provides energy to our cells, something that sustains life.”

— Bonnie Garmus

249. “I have a history of not fitting in, Phil, but I’m starting to think that not fitting in is why the show works.”

— Bonnie Garmus

250. “Having a baby, Elizabeth realized, was a little like living with a visitor from a distant planet. There was a certain amount of give and take as the visitor learned your ways and you learned theirs, but gradually their ways faded and your ways stuck. Which she found regrettable. Because unlike adults, her visitor never tired of even the smallest discovery; always saw the magic in the extraordinary.”

— Bonnie Garmus