Top 280 Angie Thomas Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “When Daddy isn’t home, Seven acts like he’s the man of the house by default. Momma always has to break his name down and put him in his place.”

— Angie Thomas

102. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

105. “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

106. “Roses can bloom in the hardest conditions.”

— Angie Thomas

107. “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

108. “We want freedom,′ I say. ‘We want the power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.”

— Angie Thomas

109. “Thank you so much for having the bravery to do this.” 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. If bravery is a medical condition, everybody’s misdiagnosed me.”

— Angie Thomas

110. “That’s why people are speaking out, huh? Because it won’t change if we don’t say something.”

— Angie Thomas

111. “People say misery loves company, but I think it’s like that with anger too.”

— Angie Thomas

112. “I don’t have to wait around for her to change. I can let go.”

— Angie Thomas

113. “They claim that a person’s eyes say more than their mouth, and that it goes both way – if we look someone in their eyes and mean what we say, they should have little reason to doubt us.”

— Angie Thomas

114. “People are realizing and shouting and marching and demanding. They’re not forgetting. I think that’s the most important part.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

116. “It’s that time between day and night when the sky looks like it’s on fire and mosquitoes are on the hunt.”

— Angie Thomas

117. “I squeeze through sweaty bodies and follow Kenya, her curls bouncing past her shoulders. A haze lingers over the room, smelling like weed, and music rattles the floor. Some rapper calls out for everybody to Nae-Nae, followed by a bunch of “Heys” as people launch into their own versions.”

— Angie Thomas

118. “Sometimes she’s my personal Yoda. If Yoda was a woman and had a gold grill. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who Yoda is.”

— Angie Thomas

119. “Fairy tale? No. But I’m not giving up on a better ending. It would be easy to quit if it was just about me, Khalil, that night, and that cop. It’s about way more than that though. It’s about Seven. Sekani. Kenya. DeVante. It’s also about Oscar. Aiyana. Trayvon. Rekia. Michael. Eric. Tamir. John. Ezell. Sandra. Freddie. Alton. Philando. It’s even about that little boy in 1955 who nobody recognized at first – Emmett.”

— Angie Thomas

120. “Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black.”

— Angie Thomas

121. “I can’t explain the look in her eyes, but it knows me better than I know myself. It wraps me up and warms me from the inside out.”

— Angie Thomas

122. “Some things are worth more than money, baby” -Jay.”

— Angie Thomas

123. “Jay’s a people person. I’m more of a “yes, people exist, but that doesn’t mean I need to talk to them” person.”

— Angie Thomas

124. “Seven and I get Sekani after school, and he won’t shut up about the news cameras he saw from his classroom window, because he’s Sekani and he came into this world looking for a camera. I have too many selfies of him on my phone giving the “light skin face,” his eyes squinted and eyebrows raised.”

— Angie Thomas

125. “I love you too,′ I murmur. ‘It’s hard for me to imagine myself not being with you, and that... that scares me. I don’t know who I am if I’m not your girlfriend. I don’t think it should be that way.”

— Angie Thomas

126. “Even Momma hugs me longer and tighter with more sympathy than “just because” in it. Sekani, on the other hand, steals bacon off my plate, looks at my phone, and purposely steps on my foot on his way out. I love him for it.”

— Angie Thomas

127. “But I realize that being real ain’t got anything to do with where you live.”

— Angie Thomas

128. “I once posted a picture of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy who was murdered for whistling at a white woman in 1955. His mutilated body didn’t look human. Hailey texted me immediately after, freaking out. I thought it was because she couldn’t believe someone would do that to a kid. No. She couldn’t believe I would reblog such an awful picture. Not long after that, she stopped liking and reblogging my other posts.”

— Angie Thomas

129. “I can’t explain the look in her eyes, but it knows me better than I know myself. It wraps me up and warms me from the inside out. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared, Starr,” she says. “It means you go on even though you’re scared. And you’re doing that.”

— Angie Thomas

130. “One-Fifteen I’m often asked why Starr never refers to the police officer who shot Khalil by his name, only by his badge number. Since her father has always instilled in her that names have power, it’s hard for Starr to give the officer any sort of power by referring to him by his given name. By using his badge number, it’s her way of refusing to humanize him – because in her mind, what he did to her and Khalil in that moment was anything but humane.”

— Angie Thomas

131. “I’ll always be my dad’s daughter if nothing else.”

— Angie Thomas

132. “It’s about way more than that though. It’s about Seven. Sekani. Kenya. DeVante. It’s also about Oscar. Aiyana. Trayvon. Rekia. Michael. Eric. Tamir. John. Ezell. Sandra. Freddie. Alton. Philando. It’s even about that little boy in 1955 who nobody recognized at first – Emmett.”

— Angie Thomas

133. “Can’t believe you still love whiny-ass Drake.”

— Angie Thomas

134. “My nana likes to say that spring brings love. Spring in Garden Heights doesn’t always bring love, but it promises babies in the winter.”

— Angie Thomas

135. “Even if he was, I knew that boy. Watched him grow up with you. He was more than any bad decision he made,” he says. “I hate that I let myself fall into that mind-set of trying to rationalize his death. And at the end of the day, you don’t kill someone for opening a car door.”

— Angie Thomas

136. “I don’t try to see who got shot or who did it. You can’t snitch if you don’t know anything.”

— Angie Thomas

137. “I shouldn’t have come to this party.”

— Angie Thomas

138. “Slave masters thought they were making a difference in black people’s lives too. Saving them from their “wild African ways.”

— Angie Thomas

139. “I walk into the most heartfelt hug I’ve ever gotten from somebody who’s not related to me. There’s not any sympathy in it either. Just love and strength.”

— Angie Thomas

140. “Yet I think it’ll change one day. How? I don’t know. When? I definitely don’t know. Why? Because there will always be someone ready to fight. Maybe it’s my turn.”

— Angie Thomas

141. “Basically, Williamson Starr doesn’t give anyone a reason to call her ghetto.”

— Angie Thomas

142. “Good afternoon, Ms. Carter,” Dr. Davis, the headmaster, says. He’s leaving as I’m going in and doesn’t wait for my response. Does he know all the students by name, or just the ones who are black like him? I hate that I think about stuff like that now.”

— Angie Thomas

143. “But I’m tired of them just assuming.”

— Angie Thomas

144. “Something to live for, something to die for.”

— Angie Thomas

145. “I’m done being who my dad wants me to be,” Miles says. “It’s not worth it.” Does he mean what I think he means? “You’re giving up your rap career?” Miles slowly nods. “Yeah. I am. Besides, is it really mine if I’m not being myself?”

— Angie Thomas

146. “Faith isn’t just believing but taking steps toward that belief.”

— Angie Thomas

147. “For now I guess we’ll keep pretending everything is fine.”

— Angie Thomas

148. “Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak.”

— Angie Thomas

149. “His mouth is open like he wants to scream. I scream loud enough for the both of us.”

— Angie Thomas

150. “The windows are boarded up with that same “black owned” tag on them, like it’s lamb’s blood protecting the store from the plague of death. The.”

— Angie Thomas