TV Quotes / The Wonder Years

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The Wonder Years

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The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years tells the story of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) facing the trials and tribulations of youth while growing up during the 1960s and 70s. Told through narration from an adult Kevin (Daniel Stern), Kevin faces the difficulties of maintaining re...

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Genres:	Comedy, Drama, Family
Number Of Seasons:	6
Network:	ABC
Created By:	Carol Black, Neal Marlens
Status:	Ended
User Score (votes):	8.1 / 10 (117,122,123)

DirectorAndy Tennant

DirectorArlene Sanford

DirectorArt Wolff

DirectorArthur Albert

Executive ProducerBob Brush

ProducerBob Stevens

DirectorBryan Gordon

Executive ProducerCarol Black

DirectorDan Lauria

DirectorDaniel Stern

ProducerDavid Chambers

DirectorDavid Greenwalt

DirectorGreg Beeman

DirectorJeffrey D. Brown

ProducerJill Gordon

DirectorJim McBride

ProducerKen Topolsky

ProducerKerry Ehrin

DirectorMatia Karrell

ProducerMatthew Carlson

ProducerMichael Dinner

DirectorNeal Israel

Executive ProducerNeal Marlens

DirectorNick Marck

DirectorPeter Baldwin

DirectorPeter Horton

DirectorPeter Werner

DirectorRob Thompson

DirectorStephen Cragg

DirectorSteve Miner

DirectorThomas Schlamme

DirectorTom Moore

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Writers often seen in this show:

Bob Brush, Carol Black, David M. Stern, Jeffrey Stepakoff, Jill Gordon, Mark B. Perry, Matthew Carlson, Max Pross, Michael J. Weithorn, Neal Marlens, Tom Gammill, + more...

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Last Updated: 2018-07-27

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The Wonder Years Characters

Narrator (Adult Kevin)

Season 1 Quotes

Season 2 Quotes

Season 3 Quotes

Season 4 Quotes

Season 5 Quotes

Season 6 Quotes

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About the author

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.

Total quotes (26)

Adolescence is a battle. A life-or-death mission into hostile territory. You tiptoe through minefields. Dodge bullets. Try to do the right thing...in a crazy time. But war has another side. The noble side. Forging friendships between improbable comrades. Uniting men. Bringing together the good...the bad...the ugly. Along around ninth grade, one thing was clear. In the battle of growing up...junior high school was basic training. Not that any of us had actually enlisted in this army. Still, we'd learned one thing. We'd learned how to survive. It was all a matter of balance. Poise. Keeping your head down. Avoiding the war. Until, that is...the war came to you.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 4: The Journey

Adolescence Battle army ugly Good Bad

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I wanted to stay there, in that night... more than anything I wanted before. But I knew I couldn't. I was fifteen. I slept under a roof my father owned, in a bed my father bought. Nothing was mine, except my heart, and my fears. And my growing knowledge that not every road was going to lead home anymore.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 5: The Lake

heart fears Homesick

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Things were confusing, alright. Sometimes even crazy. Still, I wasn't crazy. Just...in love. Winnie and I had survived the summer of long-distance romance. In fact, her move across town had brought a new depth to our relationship. We shared everything, now that she was wearing my ring. Hopes, dreams...big plans. Yep, these were golden moments—in a golden summer. When every day was perfect, and you knew it would go on forever.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 4: Growing Up

confusing Love Summer Long Distance Love

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Once upon a time life was simple. Evolutionarily speaking. Then, things began to change. The competition got tougher. There were winners...and losers. The struggle continued. Then in the fall of nineteen-seventy, a new creature appeared...the likes of which had never been seen before. Noble, upright, virtuous. Ninth-grade man. Master of all he surveyed. Which in this case was Woody's Pizza Barn where the elite went to meet. Yep, by the last week of summer I was feeling pretty good about myself.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 4: Ninth Grade Man

Simple Life Summer noble upright virtuous

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When you're a little boy, you don't have to go very far to find the center of your universe. Mom. She's always there. It's a pretty good arrangement—when you're five. But around age thirteen, there starts to be...a problem. The problem is...she's always there. And I mean always. Now a mom has to be a mom, but a guy's gotta be a guy. And when an irresistible force meets an immovable object...Sooner or later—something's gotta give.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 3: Mom Wars

Mom Growing Up Oedipus Complex

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It was humiliating. I wanted to just walk away. But then, then I realized I couldn't walk away. She looked beautiful. And terrified. And I knew she needed me. Those next few minutes seemed to last a thousand years. Every moment was potential disaster. We were both struggling. And then, a weird thing happened. I was holding the light on Winnie, when everything got very quiet. And I felt something. I don't know what it was. I felt like I was holding her up with that light. That we were connected by the light. And I wouldn't let her fall. No matter what—I wouldn't let her fall. That night I learned something. About courage… And maybe about love.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 3: On the Spot

humiliating Beautiful Courage Love

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In junior high school there were days when you felt like nothing was worth getting out of bed for. But then, you remembered...you were going to see her...Your day was gonna have all these moments...moments that were full of...possibility. When you were sure that something—something...was going to happen. And then, there were the moments that made you really, really...nervous. I don't know why, but ever since I'd broken up with Becky Slater, I felt uneasy whenever I saw her and Winnie together. I started to think...a dumpee could really do a lot of damage to a dumpster.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Nemesis

high school Getting Dumped Dumpster

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There are times in life when you think you’re lost. When every turn you take seems wrong. Then just for a moment, you see a light. And so I began that long climb into the light. Only this time I wasn’t alone.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 3: Math Class

Hard Times Difficulty Struggle Overcoming

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Once upon a time, I lived in a great big house. With a great big yard, and a great big bedroom. And a great big older brother. But by the middle of nineteen-sixty-nine, the house and the yard and the bedroom were are all getting...smaller. Or maybe Wayne and I were getting larger. One thing was certain. We were running out of room. The pressure was building. Then, just when things seemed near the point of no return...something happened. Something unexpected. Something...terrifying.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 3: Wayne on Wheels

Growing Up Terror

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The transition from summer to fall is a tricky one. Like astronauts returning from space. We had to re-enter the atmosphere of school carefully, so the sudden change in pressure wouldn't kill us.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 3: Math Class

Seasons Astronauts Summer Fall

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When you are a little kid, you are a bit of everything—artist, scientist, athlete, scholar. Sometimes, it seems life is like a process of giving those things up, one by one. I guess we all have one thing we regret giving up. One thing we really miss. And we gave up because we were too lazy. We couldn't stick it out. Or because we were afraid.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Coda

Growing Up Artist Scientist athlete Scholar Lazy

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I knew at that moment, that life was not fair. Sure...I'd write to [Teri], and maybe she'd write me—then what? Could we really wait for each other for the next ten or twelve years? It was hopeless. I'd never felt pain like this before in my entire life. It felt...wonderful.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 3: Summer Song

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Sometimes...when you're a kid...you lie awake at night and ponder the kinds of questions that grownups have long since stopped asking. Questions like—What did it feel like to be dead? Are time and space really infinite? What was there before the universe began? Why are there people like Wayne?

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Hiroshima, Mon Frere

Growing Up Curiosity Questions

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It's hard to imagine being twelve years old...and going without certain things. Like three months off in the summertime. Or a good bicycle to cruise the neighborhood on. More than anything though, it's hard to imagine being twelve years old...and not having a best-friend like Paul Pfeiffer. Paul was the nicest kid I ever knew. He would have done anything for me—I know it. And I would have done anything for him. At least, I always thought I would.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Loosiers

Summertime Bicycles

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The silence that filled our house that night - was like ice. My dad didn't come home till after midnight. [Next morning, Norma burns her hand on the iron and starts to cry. Jack gently puts his hands on her shoulders. She turns around and they hug] I know it sounds strange - but that was the first time... I'd ever seen my parents alone together. I guess sometimes the ground can shift beneath your feet. Sometimes your footing slips - you stumble. And sometimes, you grab what's closest to you, and hold on... as tight as you can.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Pottery Will Get You Nowhere

Silence family disputes

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As seventh grade wore on, I began to have nightmares. I'm walking into a sort of a—a cave. A long dark tunnel. I think Paul and Winnie are with me. But then—then—they're not. I'm all alone. I don't even want to go into the cave—I'm, I'm terrified. But I just know that I have to keep going—deeper, and deeper. So deep, it's like I can't even remember what the daylight is like anymore, and suddenly—I'm in second period math class. In pajamas. With feet! I guess I was under a lot of stress. There are a lot of things about junior high life that might seem simple to an outsider... but they're not. Take the fifteen minutes before homeroom every morning. What you do with those fifteen minutes says pretty much everything there is to say about you as a human being.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Heart of Darkness

seventh grade cave diving

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In all the years I spent growing up at my parents' house, I don't think I ever heard them use the word 'relationship'. Not once. 'Indigestion'... 'taxes'... 'damn' - these were words you heard a lot. I guess my mom just expected my dad to be a good man - honest, loyal, a good provider... hopefully possessed of good table manners. And my dad expected my mom to be a good woman - honest, loyal, a good mother. And hopefully a good cook. And that was about it. But if my parents didn't know much about relationships, they knew a lot about marriage. Like how to make a joint-decision. Mom would choose what she liked... Dad would choose what he liked...then they'd settle on something no one of our species could like. They could completely disagree about something, without directly contradicting each other. One thing my parents would never, ever do... is yell at each other in front of the kids.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Pottery Will Get You Nowhere

Relationship Taxes indigestion

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Who was right, and who was wrong? Well, I'm supposed to be an adult now, and I still can't completely figure that one out. But at some point, late at night, near sleep, the ideas and the disagreements sort of dissolve, and you're just left with the people. And people were no different then, as they've always been. And always will be. Young girls get their hearts broken. Men and women suffer alone, over the choices they've made. And young boys, full of confusion...full of fear...full of love and courage...grow up stealthily in their sleep.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 1: Angel

Right Wrong Disagreements Men Women Growing Up

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That Christmas of nineteen-sixty eight, my brother, Wayne, and I fell in love. With color-TV. It was more than love. We were witnessing a modern miracle. And we worshipped it like aborigines from the black-and-white stone-age. It was the first thing we ever agreed on. Even Mom and Karen tended to mist up in the presence of that almost-living color.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Christmas

Christmas 1968 Aborigines Stone Age

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Nineteen sixty-eight was a strange and passionate time. Things that had seemed impossible were happening all around us. The events of those days brought every emotion to the surface. We felt things strongly then. And we felt them together. I guess we all got caught up in it. Even me. And Miss White. What was it about her that affected me so profoundly? Her sensitivity? Her warmth? Her intelligence? Maybe all of those. [The camera slowly pans down her white blouse and pauses.] Maybe more. Maybe much more.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 2: Our Miss White

1968 Intelligence boobs

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And then sometimes, you knew you shouldn't do it, but you just couldn't help yourself. You gave him lip. I guess we really didn't understand why he was so hard on us sometimes. Because sometimes, and I remember these times so distinctly, my dad could be great. He could be so much fun. You never wanted that feeling to end. And then, for some reason, it always would.

— Carol Black and Neal Marlens, The Wonder Years, Season 1: My Father's Office

talking back giving lip

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Louis: Don't accept all this death and then justify it. It is wrong! Your friends should be alive...they should be enjoying dinner, and arguing with their kids, just like you are.

Jack: What do you know about it? Who the hell are you to say that?!

Louis: [pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket] You see this, man? This is my draft notice. In two weeks, I can go to jail, I can go to Canada or, I can go get shot, full of holes, like your friend Brian Cooper. You keep thinking the way you do, Mr. Arnold, and these two [points to Kevin and Wayne] will be next. And I just hope that's what they want.

— John "Jack" Arnold (Dan Lauria), The Wonder Years, Season 1: Angel

draft dodging Death Vietnam War

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That night my father stood there, looking up at the sky the way he always did. But suddenly I realized I wasn't afraid of him in quite the same way anymore. The funny thing is, I felt like I lost something.

— Carol Black and Neal Marlens, The Wonder Years, Season 1: My Father's Office

Childhood father Fear

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Maybe we both realized that growing up doesn’t always have to be a straight line, but a series of advances and retreats. Maybe we just felt like swinging. But whatever it was, Winnie and I made an unspoken pact that day to stay kids for a little while longer.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 1: Swingers

Growing Up Swinging

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It was the first kiss for both of us. We never really talked about it afterward, but I think about the events of that day again and again, and somehow I know that Winnie does too. Whenever some blowhard starts talking about the anonymity of the suburbs, or the mindlessness of the TV generation. Because we know that inside each one of those identical boxes, with its Dodge parked out front, and its white bread on the table, and its TV set glowing blue in the falling dusk, there were people with stories. There were families bound together in the pain and the struggle of love. There were moments that made us cry with laughter. And there were moments, like that one, of sorrow and wonder.

— Narrator (Adult Kevin) (Daniel Stern), The Wonder Years, Season 1: Pilot

Dodge first kiss

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The Wonder Years Characters

Narrator (Adult Kevin)

About the author

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.