Top 280 Angie Thomas Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “This is worse than denying him. I thought the worst of him. Like everybody else.”

— Angie Thomas

52. “Intentions always look better on paper than in reality. The reality is, I may not make it to the courthouse in the morning.”

— Angie Thomas

53. “But Ms. Ofrah says this interview is the way I fight. When you fight, you put yourself out there, not caring who you hurt or if you’ll get hurt. So I throw one more blow, right at One-Fifteen. “I’d ask him if he wished he shot me too.”

— Angie Thomas

54. “Church is full of people with plenty to say and nothing to do. You’d think some of them would help us instead of talk about us, but I guess it’s easy to say you love Jesus and harder to act like him.”

— Angie Thomas

55. “Intentions always look better on paper than in reality.”

— Angie Thomas

56. “I’m starting to think being a parent mean you don’t get to have much yourself. All my energy, my money, and my time go to him.”

— Angie Thomas

57. “Unarmed and dangerous, but America, you made us, only time we famous is when we die and you blame us.”

— Angie Thomas

58. “Because it won’t change if we don’t say something.”

— Angie Thomas

59. “I can’t breathe like I’m drowning in the tears I refuse to shed.”

— Angie Thomas

60. “And at the end of the day, you don’t kill someone for opening a car door. If you do, you shouldn’t be a cop.”

— Angie Thomas

61. “One of the nurses took my hand... looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Sometimes, you can do everything right, and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”

— Angie Thomas

62. “There’s that word again. Bravery. Brave peoples’ legs don’t shake. Brave people don’t feel like puking. Brave people sure don’t have to remind themselves how to breathe if they think about that night too hard.”

— Angie Thomas

63. “Daddy once told me there’s a rage passed down to every black man from his ancestors, born the moment they couldn’t stop the slave masters from hurting their families. Daddy also said there’s nothing more dangerous than when that rage is activated.”

— Angie Thomas

64. “It seems like they always talk about what he may have said, what he may have done, what he may not have done. I didn’t know a dead person could be charged in his own murder, you know?”

— Angie Thomas

65. “You’d be surprised at how many of us want justice in this case,” says Uncle Carlos. “But of course, classic Maverick. Every cop is automatically a bad cop.”

— Angie Thomas

66. “People like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.”

— Angie Thomas

67. “Keep Pushing Mav,” Rico Says ,” Tough situations don’t last. Tough People Do.”

— Angie Thomas

68. “If it’s revealed that I was in the car, what will that make me? The thug ghetto girl with the drug dealer?”

— Angie Thomas

69. “Good days don’t last forever though.”

— Angie Thomas

70. “This is Popkenchurch. Popkenchurch is when you buy fried chicken and Cajun rice from Popeyes, biscuits from KFC, and fried okra and corn on the cob from Church’s.”

— Angie Thomas

71. “I’m lying in bed. Khalil is lying in the county morgue.”

— Angie Thomas

72. “But there’s only so long you can blame what you’ve been through for what you do. At some point, you gotta blame yourself.”

— Angie Thomas

73. “That’s when I learned that when people die, they sometimes take the living with them.”

— Angie Thomas

74. “You can destroy wood and brick, but you can’t destroy a movement.”

— Angie Thomas

75. “If bravery is a medical condition, everybody’s misdiagnosed me.”

— Angie Thomas

76. “You need Saturday to recover and Sunday to repent.”

— Angie Thomas

77. “This is about Us, with a capital U; everybody who looks like us, feels like us, and is experiencing this pain with us.”

— Angie Thomas

78. “No lie, every time a sneaker is cleaned improperly, a kitten dies.”

— Angie Thomas

79. “Oh. Well, seven supposed to be holy and the number of perfection,” I say. “I think I wanna make Maverick his middle name. Everybody say he look like me. Since that’s the case, I want him to be the best version of me. The perfect Maverick Carter.”

— Angie Thomas

80. “Our friendship is based on memories. What do we have now?”

— Angie Thomas

81. “And I think you’re brilliant, talented, courageous, beautiful. You’re my miracle. But you’re the only one who can say who you are with authority. So, who are you?”

— Angie Thomas

82. “My neighborhood is a war zone.”

— Angie Thomas

83. “Others are fighting too, even in the Garden, where sometimes it feels like there’s not a lot worth fighting for. People are realizing and shouting and marching and demanding. They’re not forgetting. I think that’s the most important part. Khalil, I’ll never forget. I’ll never give up. I’ll never be quiet. I promise.”

— Angie Thomas

84. “Look, you can’t be worried about what folks think... There will always be someone with something to say, but it doesn’t mean you gotta listen.”

— Angie Thomas

85. “Sometimes I catch her staring at me, likes she’s looking for herself. Or she sees Dad and can’t look away.”

— Angie Thomas

86. “Problem is it would’ve taken Black Jesus to convince my parents to let me come. Now Black Jesus will have to save me if they find out I’m here.”

— Angie Thomas

87. “Sometimes one person’s hero is another person’s monster, or in my case, father.”

— Angie Thomas

88. “T-H-U-G L-I-F-E. Meaning what society give us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out. Get it?” “Damn.”

— Angie Thomas

89. “But one of the nurses took my hand” – Momma grabs my hand again – “looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.’” She holds my hand the rest of the drive.”

— Angie Thomas

90. “Are you serious right now?” Hailey asks. “What’s wrong with saying his life matters too?” “His life always matters more!” My voice is gruff, and my throat is tight. “That’s the problem!” “Starr!”

— Angie Thomas

91. “Black Jesus hangs from the cross in a painting on the hallway wall, and Malcolm X holds a shotgun in a photograph next to him.”

— Angie Thomas

92. “Yeah. A li’l damaged, but alive. I’m gon’ try something different with them. Putting them in new soil can be like hitting a reset button.”

— Angie Thomas

93. “And one was at the hands of a person who was supposed to protect her! What, you think if you live next door to them, they’ll treat you different?”

— Angie Thomas

94. “Son, one of the biggest lies ever told is that black men don’t feel emotions. Guess it’s easier not to see us as human when you think we’re heartless. Fact of the matter is, we feel things. Hurt, pain, sadness, all of it. We got a right to show them feelings as much as anybody else.”

— Angie Thomas

95. “Ne-gro, please. If I kill Tyrone, I’m going to prison. If a cop kills me, he’s getting put on leave. Maybe.”

— Angie Thomas

96. “They probably heard me crying. Great. What’s worse than being the Angry Black Girl? The Weak Black Girl.”

— Angie Thomas

97. “You’re a classic case of oppositional defiant disorder.”

— Angie Thomas

98. “I’ve taught myself to speak with two different voices and only say certain things around certain people. I’ve mastered it.”

— Angie Thomas

99. “All these flavors out here, and you choose to be salty” -Sonny.”

— Angie Thomas

100. “Do it. Hell, get the song taken down if you want. But you’ll never silence me. I got too goddamn much to say.”

— Angie Thomas