Top 280 Angie Thomas Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “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

152. “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

153. “The Garden passes by my window. Older folks water their flowers or bring out their trash cans. A couple of cars blast music on high. Seems normal, but things haven’t been the same since the riots. The neighborhood doesn’t feel nearly as safe. Not that the Garden was ever a utopia, hell no, but before I only worried about GDs and Crowns. Now I gotta worry about the cops too?”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

155. “A hairbrush is not a gun.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

157. “It’s like a ‘Fragile’ sticker’s on my forehead, and instead of taking a chance and saying something that might break me, they’d rather say nothing at all. But the silence is worst.”

— Angie Thomas

158. “Girls wear their hair colored, curled, laid, and slayed. Got me feeling basic as hell with my ponytail. Guys in their freshest kicks and sagging pants grind so close to girls they just about need condoms. 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

159. “Doubt those bullets were meant for her, but bullets go where they wanna go.”

— Angie Thomas

160. “All these folks I’ve never met became gods over my life. Now I gotta take the power back.”

— Angie Thomas

161. “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.”

— Angie Thomas

162. “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

163. “Momma made all of us, including Daddy, dress up like we’re going to Christ Temple – not quite Easter formal but not “diverse church” casual. She says we’re not gonna have the news people thinking we’re “hood rats.”

— Angie Thomas

164. “The neighborhood doesn’t feel nearly as safe. Not that the Garden was ever a utopia, hell no, but before I only worried about GDs and Crowns. Now I gotta worry about the cops too? Yeah, people get killed around here, and nah, it’s not always by the police, but Jay says this was like having a stranger come in your house, steal one of your kids, and blame you for it because your family was dysfunctional, while the whole world judges you for being upset.”

— Angie Thomas

165. “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

166. “Your heart will never lead you wrong, but it can be hard to hear it. You have to give it space to speak. That’s a form of love too.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

168. “The more people in your life, the more people who can leave your life, you know? I’ve lost enough as it is.”

— Angie Thomas

169. “I look at the stars again. Daddy says he named me Starr because I was his light in the darkness. I need some light in my own darkness right about now.”

— Angie Thomas

170. “By not saying “I” before “love you,” he’s making it more casual. Seriously, “love you” and “I love you” are different. Same team, different players. “Love you” isn’t as forward or aggressive as “I love you.” “Love you” can slip up on you, sure, but it doesn’t make an in-your-face slam dunk. More like a nice jump shot.”

— Angie Thomas

171. “I wish people like them would stop thinking that people like me need saving.”

— Angie Thomas

172. “We can love her with everything in us, but it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t love herself.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

174. “With me living forty-five minutes away, Tumblr is supposed to be sacred ground where our friendship is cemented. Unfollowing me is the same as saying, ‘I don’t like you anymore.”

— Angie Thomas

175. “Toen ik twaaf was, wilden mijn ouders twee keer ergens over praten. Het ene gesprek ging uiteraard over de bloemetjes en bijtjes. Het andere gesprek ging over wat ik moest doen als ik werd aangehouden door de politie.”

— Angie Thomas

176. “That’s Ma for you. Granny say she came in the world ready for whatever. When things fall apart, she quick to grab the pieces and make something new outta them.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

178. “True, but unless you’re in his shoes, don’t judge him. It’s easier to fall into that life than it is to stay outta it, especially in a situation like his.”

— Angie Thomas

179. “I told you guys my grandparents visited, and it was their first time celebrating Thanksgiving. Hailey asked if we ate a cat. Because we’re Chinese.” Ho-ly.”

— Angie Thomas

180. “But I promise you this,” he says, “no matter what happens, it’s gonna be okay. Your almighty, all-knowing big brother will make sure of that.” “I didn’t know I had another big brother.”

— Angie Thomas

181. “The first Aunt Viv was the best Aunt Viv.”

— Angie Thomas

182. “You’re gonna face a whole lot of Longs and Tates in your life, baby. More than I’d like. But you never let their actions determine what you do. The moment you do, you’ve given them the power. You hear me?”

— Angie Thomas

183. “If you can’t translate Parentish, this is what they really said: Momma: I don’t condone what you did, and I’m not saying it’s okay, but I probably would’ve done it too. What about you, baby? Daddy: Hell yeah, I would’ve. I love them for that.”

— Angie Thomas

184. “They haven’t won. But you’re so lost that you’ve lost” -Jay.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

186. “We ain’t gotta live there to change things, baby. We just gotta give a damn...”

— Angie Thomas

187. “I mean, it’s one thing to wanna do something. It’s another to think it’s possible. Rapping has been my dream forever, but dreams aren’t real. You wake up from them or reality makes them seem stupid. Trust, every time my fridge is almost empty, all of my dreams seem stupid.”

— Angie Thomas

188. “If folks can’t do anything else, they’ll cook.”

— Angie Thomas

189. “Spring has decided to go through an identity crisis and get chilly on me.”

— Angie Thomas

190. “My heart pounds loudly, but Daddy’s instructions echo in my head: Get a good look at the cop’s face. If you can remember his badge number, that’s even better.”

— Angie Thomas

191. “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

192. “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

193. “That’s what we call our goal, the come up.”

— Angie Thomas

194. “My parents have this thing where they never want me or my brothers to talk to somebody without looking them in their eyes. They claim that a person’s eyes say more than their mouth, and that it goes both ways – if we look someone in their eyes and mean what we say, they should have little reason to doubt us.”

— Angie Thomas

195. “My parents haven’t raised me to fear the police, just to be smart around them.”

— Angie Thomas

196. “The hospital fired her ’cause she was sick.”

— Angie Thomas

197. “How he could sell the very stuff that took his momma from him? Did he realize that he was taking somebody else’s momma from them?”

— Angie Thomas

198. “What’s it about this time?” I ask. “Pop Tarts,” Britt says. Hailey turns to us and points at Luke. “This jerk actually said they’re better warmed up in the microwave.” “Eww,” I say, instead of my usual “Ill,” and Maya goes, “Are you serious?”

— Angie Thomas

199. “A good garden needs good conversation.”

— Angie Thomas

200. “Good.” He gets the grapes out the refrigerator. “You still got that old laptop? The one you had before we bought you that expensive-ass fruit one?” I laugh. “It’s an Apple MacBook, Daddy.” “It damn sure wasn’t the price of an apple. Anyway, you got the old one?”

— Angie Thomas