Would I like to be the lead girl? Who wouldn’t?
April 5th 2000 Contra Costa Times

What Olympic sport would you participate in?
"The Luge - because you can actually be an athlete by lying down, which is not good for any woman to brag about."
Entertainment Weekly 2000

Hollywood is what you make it, you have to choose company with care because you become what they are.
Yahoo.com Chat. April 13 2000

If I've learned one thing in life, it's: "Stand for something or you'll fall for anything.

"During promotion for Return to Me Bonnie relayed this story on a Conan O’ Brian. What follows is paraphrased.
Bonnie was in town to promote the movie, and Robin's Williams’ wife called her and asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner with them, Roberto B. and his wife....so of course she said yes. So Bonnie's talking about how Roberto's wife is all quiet, and Roberto is like screaming at you--and then with Robin, it was like she was like the school teacher or something, anyway, all of a sudden, Robert DeNiro walks in, and this is where Conan jokes and is like "I hope this is really a nice restaurant, I hope you all weren't sitting in an Arby's or something," anyway, DeNiro comes over to the table....and Bonnie wants to impress Roberto with her Italian, so as DeNiro is shaking hands with Roberto, Bonnie goes to Roberto, in Italian "I need to have sex with Robert DeNiro"....and Roberto is laughing, and then, after DeNiro leaves, Robin asks Roberto what Bonnie said, that was so funny. And Roberto said "Well Bonnie said, in Italian, I want to have sex with Robert DeNiro"...and Robin's like "Oh. Robert DeNiro speaks Italian" and Bonnie's like "WHAT?!?!"

If you're having a dream, wake up and live it.
Bob Hunt

Is it hard being a woman in Hollywood?:
I think it would be more difficult for me to be a man. I'd have to get all new clothes.

"My dogs have completely different personalities. One of them, I think gives me the finger whenever I turn around...I call her Mrs. Kravitz, because she just looks out the window all day, and then comes and barks and tells me what's going on."

I did Letterman's show a couple weeks ago, and she (her mother) actually called and left a message at the hotel: "Tell Bonnie to sit up straight."

"I think families are so great, because when you go home, no matter what you've accomplished in your life, you still are the person you were in sixth grade to them. You know, it never really changes."

I think that failure by your own standards is certainly a form of success.
Jan 2 1996 San Francisco

Keep it small, enjoy it all.
John Murphy (Bonnie's husband)

"I never took any acting classes. I didn't have to. My mother was like a director from day one. I mean, the minute the doorbell rang, she's like, 'ROLLING! ACTION! "HAPPY FAMILY," TAKE ONE! PLACES EVERYBODY! IT'S AUNTIE ANNIE! LOOK ALIVE, FOLKS!'"

"My mom gave me a card on my wedding day and you know, I'm on my honeymoon, it's the first night, and I open up the card that my mother handed me at the end of the night and there's a little quarter taped in it and at the bottom it says, 'If you don't like him, call me. I'll come get you."

I said 'impregnate' on my first television series, [my mom] didn't speak to me for two weeks...

Tom Snyder: But you wouldn't whip your clothes off in a movie, would you?
Bonnie: Well, if it was a comedy, sure.

What Bonnie misses most about Chicago:
"That my figure fit in. I'll tell ya, I get off the plane in Chicago, I'm a goddess. Yeah, here, I'm Shelley Winters in The Poseidon Adventure."

At the Return to Me Premiere:
I want to kiss everyone here. Well almost everyone. not the people that came late - they get nothing.

We tortured David, (Duchovny) there's not a take where David Allen Grier doesn't go "Oh look! A spaceship."

On why she decided to write and direct instead of just acting:
Well I don't get offered starring roles..so I did Random Heart and The Green Mile while I was in preproduction on this film (Return to Me) so I could keep my acting life alive. I love acting and I love another director to guide me, but you know a girl like me, I mostly get supporting roles and i'm really happy to play them because I love the roles and I love the stories. But I also love being a storyteller and I was frustrated. I wanted to do more. But I think I will be a better actor after this experience for any director. I've been through the childbirth so to speak.

"I said damnit, it's getting late (on the set of Return to Me) all of a sudden I feel someone whack me in the back of my head. My mother says 'don't talk like that Bonnie, you were not raised that way!' One of the crew guys comes up to me and says, 'Bonnie, I've been doing movies for 27 years. I've never seen someone hit the director for swearing!'"

I really enjoy being a part of a good story, whether it's as actress, writer or director. But for the most part, I don't get offered lead roles. I get offered these wonderful supporting character roles and I love playing them. Do I dream of someday playing the lead? Of course. And perhaps that may happen. But if not, I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had.
Checkout.com chat 2000

In an interview:
(to her husband) Don't forget to pick up the lawnmower honey! Or ask the neighbour boy to come and mow our lawn ol? We look like the Beverly Hillbillies!
(to the interviewer)
You think I'm kidding, but last week I let the dog out onto the front lawn, we couldn't find her for three days! I'm not joking!
April 7th 2000 scripps Howard News service.

On having an assistant on Return to Me:
I made up the assistant. I called her Gloria. We'd be on location somewhere and an executive from the studio would visit, so to any woman that walked past me I'd say 'Gloria, can you pick up my dry cleaning this afternoon?' And of course the woman would ignore me and keep walking. I'd turn to the executive and say 'can you believe the way Gloria ignores me? I'm gonna fire her.' Worked every time. They were impressed.'
Entertainment weekly April 17 2000

On the nuns in Return to Me:
They were actresses! Between takes they'd be smoking and sitting there with their legs hanging open, and I'm thinking 'We're all going to burn in hell!'

Therapy:
The cheapest form of thearpy is writing and performing. You know what it's like when you like somebody and you write a letter that you'll never send? But you feel better just because you wrote the letter? Just don't mail it or do any of that drunk dialing (mimicks a desperate phone call) It's the same thing.

Newsnet5 Interview by Tim Lammers March 24 2000
Newsnet5: I certainly hope that the academy recognises this film coming up at the end of the year..
Bonnie: Me?
Newsnet5: Yes you
Bonnie: Get out of here, that will never happen.
Newsnet5: I know they have a disrespect for comedy, but there’s certainly more than that. They should have a respect for comedy don’t get me wrong.
Bonnie: No I agree with you, but the thing is, I think that movies like this that seem..simple, and they should seem simple when you watch them, if they’re done right it should seem very easy, that it must have been so east to just do this. I..if you don’t see the heartache or the work that goes into it, sometimes people think it’s not the same type of art. It’s like that line from Bowfinger which makes me laugh so hard, is when Eddie Murphy says "get me the part of a retarded slave if I’m ever going to win an Academy Award." (laughs) You know what I mean? Unless you have a limp and an accent, you know, you really don’t have much going for ya.

Jim Belushi on Bonnie's directing:
Bonnie really is about heart. Yo can argue about people's logic and reason, but you can never argue with someone who is coming from the heart. It's ironic that she picks a movie about a heart to direct her first time. This is all about her heart, her comic sensibility, her sense of family, her sense of what an ensemble really is, and her sense of care. What is not in this movie is cynicism and negativity. It's all about people caring for each other. She does without sentimentality and without melodrama. If you are not honest in a moment in a scene, she'll stop the scene and talk to you. She is just so caring. The movie is really not about finding love so much as it is about being loving. She's captured the true essence of ensemble. What is ensemble? Ensemble is family. I think this movie will take her to another level. And she'll never get spoiled or lose that sense.
Dateline 4/3/00

Experience
Forget the heart-transplant issue in the movie (RTM). There are a lot of women out there who are sexually inexperienced at that age, women who aren't necessarily having sex at 16 or 20. I feel they are under-represented in films, and I wish I could take out the heart-transplant part so I wouldn't have to justify her life.
Women feel they're either part of the group or not, and it's a really lonely thing when you're not, especially when you're a young girl going to see movies. I went through that. You think everyone else has these incredible romances when they're 15 years old and are in love. You think, 'What's wrong with me?' So it was nice to have a woman in her 20s who didn't know what the heck to do.
Film Vol 21 4/5/00

Second City
The audience trained me there. Do you know what I mean? I didn't have any formal training. I don't have any training as a writer or an actress, but I was a nursing student and went to nursing school. so most of my training is life experience and I'm grateful for that, because as a writer, the more in touch you are with the characters of everyday life and the nuances of it, I think the better writer you are. For me anyway it helps. So that's why I stay so average looking, and I do my own gardening. It's all part of the master plan.
Checkout.com April 2000

On filming in Chicago
Half the time I didn't even have a permit to film. I'm not kidding. My teamsters were like "You want us to block traffic, Bon? No problem. Don't worry." I'd be like "You guys it's um, rush hour." They would say, "Bon, it's for you. The cars can wait."
April 2nd 2000

On the role of Megan in Return to Me
I had to audition four times for myself. I wasn't even taking my own calls.
4/7/00

On directing Return to Me
Because of the fact that I'm an actor, and most of the time I'm a supporting player, I have a great deal of empathy and respect for the whole ensemble. So the actors knew that they had that protection and somebody who has been in their shoes.
4/7/00

On her Dad
My Dad was a man of great wisdom in his short time here. I was very down as a teenager, very upset, because I have gotten hurt in a car accident. But my Dad was a source of strength. He used to say, "It's the character with strength that God gives the most challenges to." I've thought about that so many times in my life when things didn't go right.
SanFrancisco Chronicle April 2 2000

David Duchovny on Bonnie:
What everyone points out about Bonnie is that her humour is almost never at somebody else's expense. Bonnie makes alot of people laugh, but it's harder to make her laugh. Her sense of humour is really democratic, it doesn't rely on stereotyping. It's not trying to say anything except we're all human beings
Toronto Sun April 2 2000

Caroll O Connor (in his first movie role in 25 years) on Bonnie:
She's one of the best directors, male or female, I've ever worked with.

"(She's) one of the most gifted and talented women in the business today,"

"She's a find and I'm told that Fox has signed her to a multiple picture deal and I think they're very shrewd," . "She's a helluva director and a helluva creative girl."