"Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible"
About this Quote
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the modern obsession with self-knowledge as mastery. You can know your triggers, your patterns, your tolerance for intimacy - and still be blindsided by a new category of attachment that doesn’t behave like the old ones. Thurman frames this not as saintly transcendence but as discovery: the heart wasn’t smaller than you hoped; it was simply untested.
Context matters here because it’s coming from an actress whose public image has often been stylized as cool, controlled, even lethal - the kind of person pop culture codes as self-possessed. That makes the vulnerability sharper: the admission that something can exceed your script. Calling the love “inexhaustible” isn’t a Hallmark flourish; it’s a recalibration of scarcity thinking. The quote works because it treats parental love as a surprise plot twist, not a moral upgrade.
Quote Details
| Topic | New Mom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Thurman, Uma. (2026, January 17). Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-i-had-my-child-i-thought-i-knew-all-the-63872/
Chicago Style
Thurman, Uma. "Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-i-had-my-child-i-thought-i-knew-all-the-63872/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-i-had-my-child-i-thought-i-knew-all-the-63872/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.






