Top 280 Angie Thomas Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “Roses can bloom in the hardest conditions.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

103. “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

104. “It’s kinda like how we have to do with ourselves. Get rid of the things that don’t do us any good. If it won’t help the rose grow, you’ve gotta let it go.”

— Angie Thomas

105. “They act like I’m the official representative of the black race and they owe me an explanation. I think I understand though. If I sit out a protest, I’m making a statement, but if they sit out a protest, they look racist.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

109. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

111. “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

112. “A hairbrush is not a gun.”

— Angie Thomas

113. “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

114. “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

115. “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

116. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

118. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

122. “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

123. “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

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

— 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. “Crying doesn’t make you weak, Bri, and even if it did, there’s nothing wrong with that. Admitting that you’re weak is one of the strongest things you can do” -Trey.”

— Angie Thomas

127. “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

128. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

130. “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

131. “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

132. “On the radio, Marvin Gaye asks what’s going on.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

134. “Ain’t no astronauts, doctors, or veterinarians around here. Everybody I know just tryna work.”

— Angie Thomas

135. “Although not all of you are “blood” family, you’re “love” family.”

— Angie Thomas

136. “At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”

— Angie Thomas

137. “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

138. “I didn’t know a dead person could be charged in his own murder, you know?”

— Angie Thomas

139. “DeVante. Khalil. Neither one of them thought they had much of a choice. If I were them, I’m not sure I’d make a much better one.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

141. “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

142. “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

143. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

145. “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

146. “Her red eyes remind me of what Khalil said when we were little, that his momma had turned into a dragon. He claimed that one day he’d become a knight and turn her back.”

— Angie Thomas

147. “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

148. “He got a tan over break. I used to tell him he was so pale he looked like a marshmallow. He hated that I compared him to food. I told him that’s what he got for calling me caramel. It shut him up.”

— Angie Thomas

149. “The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me. Momma fussed and told Daddy I was too young for that. He argued that I wasn’t too young to get arrested or shot. “Starr-Starr, you do whatever they tell you to do,” he said. “Keep your hands visible. Don’t make any sudden moves. Only speak when they speak to you.”

— Angie Thomas

150. “See, last year a kid was murdered by a cop just a few streets away from my grandparents’ house. He was unarmed, but the grand jury decided not to charge the officer. There were riots and protests for weeks.”

— Angie Thomas