A character in Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Bill Dunbar quotes from Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Dominic West

2nd most-quoted character in Mona Lisa Smile (2003): in 11 of its 22 quotes
Most scenes with: Katherine Watson (6), Betty Warren (4), Connie Baker (3)

A line from Bill Dunbar [In reference to Betty's future in laws]

Did you ever hear the phrase "Keeping up with the Jones'" [points to the Jones] Mr. and Mrs. Jones. The actual historic family they named the phrase after.

Scenes with Bill Dunbar

10 scenes

She's smiling. Is she happy?

Mrs. Warren

The important thing is not to tell anyone.

She looks happy. So, what does it matter?

Mrs. Warren

Don't wash your dirty laundry in public.

It was my choice... not to go. He would have supported it.

But you don't have to choose.

No, I have to. I want a home; I want a family, that's not something I'll sacrifice.

No-one's asking you to sacrifice that, Joan, I just want you to understand you can do both.

Do you think I'll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?

Yes, I'm afraid that you will.

Not as much as I regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I'm doing and it doesn't make me any less smart.

[Katherine looks down]

This must seem terrible to you.

I didn't say that.

Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.

[hugs Joan]

Congratulations. Be happy.

Charlie Stewart

My parents say my future is right on the horizon.

Tell them the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it.

[voiceover]

All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.

Staunton's Secretary

I was in California once. How do you get any work done with all that sunshine?

We tan in class.

[about Betty's Wedding]

This is quite the event. I'm surprised I was invited.

Bill Dunbar

Well, look around you. [beat] Who wasn't?

Katherine Watson: Slide. Contemporary art.

Now that's just an advertisement.

Quiet! Today you just listen. What will the future scholars see when they study us? A portrait of woman today? There you are ladies. The perfect likeness of a Welesley graduate, Magna **** Laude doing exactly what she was trained to do. Slide. A Rhodes scholar. I wonder is she reciting Chaucer while she presses her husband's shirts. Slide. Heh, now you physics major's can calculate the mass and volume of every meat loaf you ever make. Slide. A girdle to set you free! What does that mean?... What does that mean?... What does it mean? I give up. You win. The smartest women in the country... I didn't realize that by demanding excellence I would be challenging... what did it say?

[walks over to student's desk and picks up newspaper]

what did it say? um... the roles you were born to fill

[looks up at Betty]

is that right? the roles you were born to fill?... It's, uh, it's my mistake.

[drops paper and walks out of classroom]

Class dismissed.

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