Top 60 Hannah Bonam-Young Quotes (2026 Update)

1. “I keep thinking that, as of my birthday, I’ll be older than my mom ever was. I hate that.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

2. “This book is dedicated to those who think Jess was Rory’s best boyfriend. The rest of you are wrong.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

3. “Are you flirting with me?” I ask. Or at least I think I do. His soft, single laugh surprises me. “For over a year now. Thanks for noticing.” He kisses next to my ear.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

4. “Our kiss is a reunion. It’s running into someone’s arms at an airport. It’s spotting an old friend across a crowded party. It’s relief and joy and gratefulness and surprise. And it’s perfect.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

5. “I love you, Win. I love you so much it makes me feel like I’ve hated everything else in my life up until now. Nothing compares to what I feel for you. Not even close.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

6. “Our souls were tied a long time ago, I think. We’re just finally admitting it to each other.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

7. “So you don’t know who the dad is?” “It’s a bit of a Mamma Mia situation, I’m afraid,” I answer. “Here we go again,” Bo mutters under his breath.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

8. “Yeah. It’s been quiet.” “Here?” “No, without you.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

9. “Sometimes it feels like everyone else has a script, and I’m doing improv.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

10. “Comic books,” Sarah says, snickering. “I’ve seen what you read on your Kindle. You’re in no place to judge.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

11. “These things just happen, sometimes.” I shrug, trying to act nonchalant where all I feel is chalant. Very chalant.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

12. “It’s so much easier to communicate insecurities when you don’t need to communicate them at all. Isn’t that all we ever want? To be seen and heard? Validated, even when we’re not able to ask for it.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

13. “You are my soul’s purpose, Win. To know you, to love you, to build a family with you, to spend every day taking care of you, to watch you shine and get all the good things you deserve out of this life.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

14. “This is such a you gift.” The words tumble out of me. “Cheap? Boring? Peculiar?” He crosses one leg over his knee, which is bouncing. “No.” I find his eyes and hold his stare. “Thoughtful, careful, beautiful.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

15. “Perhaps that’s all Bo and I are. Two people leaving behind the worst, looking forward to the good to come.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

16. “And he kisses me back, fierce yet gentle, and it’s like a thousand hours spent wanting each other spilling between us.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

17. “You can’t change anything by hiding it. You’ll just look back on memories and realise you tried to erase yourself. And how sad that would be.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

18. “Everyday we seem to talk about nothing and everything all at once. Every thought, every feeling, every memory recounted until we run dry. We continue to pour all of ourselves out to each other. Until our histories and stories started becoming more of a woven tapestry than a blank slate. And the nothing too. The insignificant observations and the silly anecdotes that no one else would care to hear. Those are just as important.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

19. “It is an honour to wear your father’s ring. I’m – ” He swallows, gathering himself. “I’m going to look after it. I’m going to look after you.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

20. “I growl, turning away from him as I flop onto our bed like a dramatic starfish.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

21. “It’s no longer a question if I love him. I know I do. It’s whether I can love myself as much as I love Matt that matters. If I can allow myself to love him in a way that he deserves, free from fear.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

22. “I wanted to write a book for anyone who’s let fear of failure slow them down. Not just for those of us who choose to have kids, or those of us who are disabled, but for anyone who’s been thrust into something new that took them so far out of their comfort zone they no longer recognised their past, afraid self.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

23. “A dangerous feeling erupts in my chest. A goofy, body-possessing type of affection for this man.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

24. “Perfect,” I mumble. Like a weighted blanket for my soul.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

25. “I think of the string Rochester described to Jane, tethered to each other’s rib. That he felt like he was going to bleed out by having it ripped off him if she went too far. I didn’t understand that until you. Missing you is painful. Physical and real. Perhaps if I keep tugging on this invisible string, you’ll follow it home. Yours, Matt.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

26. “I don’t try to force my body to be something or deprive it of pleasantries. It just is. And I like it, enough, as is.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

27. “I have something for you.” I lower the chain into my palm, and it coils like a snake. Then, once I’ve removed my father’s wedding ring from it, I lower to one knee slowly.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

28. “I fall asleep cocooned in my own blanket-turned-shield, facing away from him, long after he falls asleep. Hours later, I wake up to an alarm far earlier than I’ve ever set and my body draped across him like a starfish stuck to an aquarium’s glass wall.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

29. “Clara was special. Is special. She’s a mosaic of a person. So many differing, unique elements that create one perfect thing. A little chaotic and a whole lot of mess involved – but beautiful all the same.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

30. “She’s wearing bike shorts and a cute, oversized sweater with the word Velaris written across it. I think that’s from a favourite book of hers, but if I ask, we’ll never get out of here on time.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

31. “I actually thought there were only two kinds of love before. That it was just love like your family or romantic love. But I think there may be hundreds of kinds. Love like a new lease on life. Love like a place to exist freely. Love like being understood. Love like the contented quiet. Love like freshly baked cookies. Love like a thin veil between wishing it’d started earlier and loving the way it began.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

32. “Happiness is like one of those places on an enchanted island, its gates guarded by dragons. One must fight to gain it.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

33. “Life kept going, the Earth kept spinning, everyone moved on, but I stayed still.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

34. “I miss feeling young and carefree and naive. I wasted so much of that time wishing I was older. Waiting impatiently to get out and live my own life. But that never really happened. I just got older. And now look at me. Nothing to show for it.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

35. “Win, if you walk out of that room sturdier than me, I won’t be happy.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

36. “I missed you,” he says, lowering me back to stand on my own two feet. I reach beside me for a party hat and hold it up to him. “It was just one night,” I say. Bo bends at the waist, allowing me to fasten it to his head. “Happy birthday,” I repeat, just for him this time.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

37. “I want you to understand that you can be anything but not everything. And, sometimes, you have to make a choice for yourself, right or wrong, before life makes it for you. I don’t want you to let anyone tell you not to try just because you might fail.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

38. “You never have to do that with me. Show me the messy parts, okay? God knows, I’ve shown you mine.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

39. “I felt as if my mother was the only person who could help me grieve her. How could she leave me to do that alone?”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

40. “I promise to love you forever. Simple as that. My love will not always be perfect. I won’t always be kind; I won’t always be generous; I won’t always be rational – but I will love you every single day I have on this earth. And I will tell you I love you with my words and with my actions.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

41. “Where love is shown to be validating, kind, considerate, joyful, patient, and gentle.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

42. “When did you start making your feelings smaller for other people’s benefit?”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

43. “You’re it for me, dove. You’re going to be my last everything.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

44. “Win’s choice is not superior, nor is she pressured into it. Win’s choice is just that. Her choice.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

45. “Love waltzed into my tiny town, found my very doorstep, let himself in, and miraculously managed to find me in a home I’ve never left.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

46. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he whispers, his mouth tilted into the crook of my neck. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and hold him too. “I said I would be,” I whisper back. “Did you do all of this?” he asks, his voice less strained but not quite right. “Yeah.” He sighs out, his breath warm against my throat. “Thank you.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

47. “That’s the question I was going to ask tonight,” Bo interrupts. “Who in this world matters the most to you?” “You,” I answer simply, pleading with him to hear me. What I said and all that it means. “You,” he repeats. “It’s you for me too. With a very close second,” he says, his eyes on my belly.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

48. “Maybe, as scary as it is, time running out is a gift.” He drags a lazy hand down my back. “If we were infinite beings, I wouldn’t worry about holding you like this every second I could. I’d know I’d get to do it again. The love I have for you is urgent. It’s a needy thing. Maybe it wouldn’t be if we had eternity. I’d get lazy with it.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

49. “I gather myself. “I never even really knew why I kept them. But then you came along and teased me about it... and then you stuck. And then you loved me. And more than that, you became the only home I’ve ever really known. The only place I’ve ever really felt safe to be me. And then I didn’t need to hold on to them anymore. Those little remnants of my past didn’t seem to matter.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young

50. “I, like most women my age, have learned to hate myself just enough to appease others.”

— Hannah Bonam-Young