Top 450 Bonnie Garmus Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “A man can make lunch, Mr. Pine. It is not biologically impossible.”

— Bonnie Garmus

402. “And while Elizabeth wasn’t entirely keen on the idea – she was a research chemist – she took the job for the usual reasons: it paid more and she had a child to support.”

— Bonnie Garmus

403. “Well,” she said, “she keeps repeating how by Saturday night, she’ll finally be Mrs. Peter Dickman. As if changing her name is the finish line for a race she’s been in since she was six.”

— Bonnie Garmus

404. “This time, though, we’ll make sure everyone knows you earned your place. You’re a bright girl, Lizzie. It’s possible.”

— Bonnie Garmus

405. “Family is far more than biology.”

— Bonnie Garmus

406. “No one’s fine with a newborn, Miss Zott. The little gremlin will suck the life right out of you.”

— Bonnie Garmus

407. “The bishop had forced himself to take the check without looking at it, but once Wilson was out the door, he laid the slip of paper flat on his desk. Nice chunk of change. And more to come, thanks to his idea to create a memorial fund for someone who wasn’t even dead yet. He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers across his chest. If anyone needed any further proof of God’s existence, they need look no further. All Saints: the place where God actually did help those who helped themselves.”

— Bonnie Garmus

408. “No,” he said. “What I meant was, I think you might benefit from steno school – dictation. I found a correspondence course for you,” he said, handing her a brochure. “The beauty is, you could do it at home in your free time.”

— Bonnie Garmus

409. “A mother and a scientist,” she said, brushing sawdust off her sleeve. “You’re a father, aren’t you? A father and a scientist.”

— Bonnie Garmus

410. “It was on their honeymoon that he’d first masturbated to girlie magazines right next to her in bed.”

— Bonnie Garmus

411. “And now, here was this little girl claiming to be his daughter. God really did move in mysterious ways.”

— Bonnie Garmus

412. “They were working even when they weren’t working-fueling each other’s creativity and inventiveness with a new point of view-and while the scientific community would later marvel at their productivity, they probably would have marveled even more had they realized most of it was done naked.”

— Bonnie Garmus

413. “When I was a kid,” Calvin said quietly, “I used to tell myself every day was new. That anything could happen.” She took his hand again. “Did it help?” His mouth sagged as he remembered what the bishop at the boys home had revealed to him about his father. “I guess I’m just saying we shouldn’t let ourselves get stuck in the past.”

— Bonnie Garmus

414. “She’d hate it if she knew how much he worried and fussed, so he kept it to himself. But how could he not fuss over the person he loved more than anything, more than seemed even possible?”

— Bonnie Garmus

415. “Politicians don’t make it easy, do they?”

— Bonnie Garmus

416. “Who didn’t want to dip into the deep end of someone else’s childhood and meet all the usual suspects – the strict parent, the competitive siblings, the crazy aunt?”

— Bonnie Garmus

417. “He’d never been one for self-improvement – never even gotten through Dale Carnegie’s book about making friends and influencing people because ten pages in he realized he didn’t care what anyone else thought.”

— Bonnie Garmus

418. “Mad, I need you to understand something,” he said, noting, with shock, that his own hands were in the photograph. “Families aren’t meant to fit on trees. Maybe because people aren’t part of the plant kingdom – we’re part of the animal kingdom.”

— Bonnie Garmus

419. “When she was in labor and in horrific pain, convinced the baby was snatching her internal organs like suitcases as if to ensure she’d have plenty to wear on the outside, she screamed so violently the bed frame shook.”

— Bonnie Garmus

420. “Sorry, Donatti, she said, handing him a pen. “You’re just not smart enough.”

— Bonnie Garmus

421. “Just like after her brother’s suicide and Meyers’s attack, she could not cry.”

— Bonnie Garmus

422. “Support?” Elizabeth said. “But I’m a chemist, not a lab tech.” “No, you’re a lab tech,” Donatti said firmly. “You’ve been out of the game for a while now. Surely you didn’t think you could just waltz in here and get your old job back – not after years of thumb twiddling. But here’s the deal – work hard and we’ll see.”

— Bonnie Garmus

423. “By the way and in case anyone was interested, he’d just learned a new word: “diary.” It was a place where one wrote vicious things about one’s family and friends and hoped to god they never saw.”

— Bonnie Garmus

424. “Worse, Elizabeth explained, many of these women passed such notions down to their children, using phrases like “Boys will be boys” or “You know how girls are.”

— Bonnie Garmus

425. “What a coincidence,” she shouted as she went straight over to a shelf and helped herself to a large box of beakers. “I’m busy too.” Then she marched out.”

— Bonnie Garmus

426. “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.”

— Bonnie Garmus

427. “That’s when it came to her. She would charge. Cash only.”

— Bonnie Garmus

428. “The biggest benefit in being the child of a scientist? Low safety bar.”

— Bonnie Garmus

429. “A society that believed men went to work and did important things – discovered planets, developed products, created laws – and women stayed at home and raised children. She didn’t want children – she knew this about herself – but she also knew that plenty of other women did want children and a career. And what was wrong with that? Nothing. It was exactly what men got.”

— Bonnie Garmus

430. “Elizabeth,” Harriet implored. “You have to watch her. I found her crawling into the washing machine yesterday.” “Don’t worry,” Elizabeth said, still staring at the test tubes. “I never start a load without checking first.”

— Bonnie Garmus

431. “Or you could try my bowie knife,” Harriet suggested. “Let them know where you stand.”

— Bonnie Garmus

432. “Because while musical prodigies are always celebrated, early readers aren’t. And that’s because early readers are only good at something others will eventually be good at, too. So being first isn’t special – it’s just annoying.”

— Bonnie Garmus

433. “He was dead thirty-seven minutes later.”

— Bonnie Garmus

434. “No wonder people didn’t understand animals. They could barely understand each other.”

— Bonnie Garmus

435. “Sitting by never got anyone anywhere.”

— Bonnie Garmus

436. “Look at you – you’ve got the death row look.”

— Bonnie Garmus

437. “Humans need reassurance,” Wakely wrote back. “They need to know others survived the hard times. And, unlike other species, which do a better job of learning from their mistakes, humans require constant threats and reminders to be nice. You know how we say, ‘People never learn?’ It’s because they never do. But religious texts try to keep them on track.”

— Bonnie Garmus

438. “She once overheard a woman in the park saying she wished Reader’s Digest would condense the Bible, and Harriet found herself thinking, Yes – and marriages.”

— Bonnie Garmus

439. “Calvin turned his head to the left, trying to disguise his disappointment. In that moment, he realized how much he’d wanted to meet her family-how much he’d hoped to sit at a Thanksgiving table, surrounded by people who would finally be his because he was hers.”

— Bonnie Garmus

440. “It wasn’t that he couldn’t function without her, but rather that he didn’t see the point of functioning without her.”

— Bonnie Garmus

441. “I’m not sure how else to explain it,” she said, her voice beginning to break, “except to say we had chemistry. Actual chemistry. And it was no accident.”

— Bonnie Garmus

442. “Don’t even get me started on pay. And all because they didn’t attend a school that wouldn’t admit them in the first place.”

— Bonnie Garmus

443. “While some couples’ togetherness tends to affect their work in a negative way, it was just the opposite for Elizabeth and Calvin. They were working even when they weren’t working – fueling each other’s creativity and inventiveness with a new point of view – and while the scientific community would later marvel at their productivity, they probably would have marveled even more had they realized most of it was done naked.”

— Bonnie Garmus

444. “But isn’t there more solace in science?” Calvin responded. “In things we can prove and therefore work to improve? I just don’t understand how anyone thinks anything written ages ago by drunk people is even remotely believable.”

— Bonnie Garmus

445. “What is wrong with women?” Elizabeth demanded. “Why do they buy into these cultural stereotypes? Worse, why do they perpetuate them? Are they not aware of the dominant female role in the hidden tribes of the Amazon? Is.”

— Bonnie Garmus

446. “Although he didn’t admit to it, Wakely found himself agreeing. No one had to pray to Snow White or fear the wrath of Rumpelstiltskin to understand the message. The stories were short, memorable, and covered all the bases of love, pride, folly, and forgiveness. Their rules were bite-sized: Don’t be a jerk. Don’t hurt other people or animals. Share what you have with others less fortunate. In other words, be nice. He decided to change the topic.”

— Bonnie Garmus

447. “Excuse me, Father,” Calvin said, leafing through his copy, “but there’s a problem with mine. Some of the pages are missing.” “They’re not missing, Calvin,” the priest said. “They’ve been removed.” “Why?” “Because they’re wrong, that’s why. Now open your books to page one hundred nineteen, boys. We’ll start with – ” “Evolution’s missing,” Calvin persisted, riffling through the pages. “That’s enough, Calvin.” “But – ” The ruler cracked down hard against his knuckles.”

— Bonnie Garmus

448. “Then she looked right through the camera lens, and almost as if she divined it, directly into the astonished faces of Mrs. George Fillis’s five children sprawled in front of the TV in Kernville, their eyes open wide, their mouths agape, as if they had just seen their mother for the very first time. “Boys, set the table,” Elizabeth commanded. “Your mother needs a moment to herself.”

— Bonnie Garmus

449. “But she had learned that underemployment was worse. Not only did her paycheck reflect her lowly status, but her brain hurt from inactivity.”

— Bonnie Garmus

450. “Your dad was very famous – I’m sure you know that. And now your mom is, too.” “Because of Life,” the child said, hanging her head. “No,” Frask said firmly. “In spite of it.”

— Bonnie Garmus