Top 280 Angie Thomas Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “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

152. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

154. “Pastor Eldridge once preached that ‘Faith isn’t just believing but taking steps toward that belief.’ So when my alarm goes of Tuesday morning, by faith I don’t get up, believing that Momma won’t make me go to school.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

158. “The beautiful thing about best friends? They can tell when you don’t wanna talk, and they don’t push it.”

— Angie Thomas

159. “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

160. “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

161. “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

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. “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

164. “They leave Khalil’s body in the street like it’s an exhibit. Police cars and ambulances flash all along Carnation Street. People stand off to the side, trying to see what happened.”

— Angie Thomas

165. “I’d ask him if he wished he shot me too.”

— 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. “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

168. “French braids. Are they cute? Yeah. Is it a process? Unfortunately. They’re so tight I can feel my thoughts.”

— Angie Thomas

169. “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

170. “DeVante’s got a point. What makes his name or our names any less normal than yours? Who or what defines ‘normal’ to you? If my pops were here, he’d say you’ve fallen into the trap of the white standard.”

— Angie Thomas

171. “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

172. “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

173. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

176. “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

177. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

179. “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

180. “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

181. “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

182. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

184. “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

185. “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

186. “Aunt Pooh doesn’t go from zero to one hundred – she goes from chill to ready to kill.”

— Angie Thomas

187. “There are jobs, and there are jobs with benefits. Big difference. Whenever somebody in my family gets a job, the first question is, “Does it have benefits?”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

189. “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

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

— Angie Thomas

191. “You’re just a casualty in the reality of the madness of Bri.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

193. “One of my baby photos smiles back at me, permanently etched on his arm with Something to live for, something to die for written beneath it. Seven and Sekani are on his other arm with the same words beneath them. Love letters in the simplest form.”

— 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. “High school ain’t the end or the beginning. It ain’t even in the middle. You ’bout to do big things, whether they see it or not. I see it. Everybody last night saw it. Long as you see it, that’s all that matters.”

— Angie Thomas

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

— Angie Thomas

197. “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

198. “She’s called Jay that ‘ol’ hood rat from the projects’ plenty of times. Then again, Jay has called her ‘that ol’ bougie heffa’ just as much.”

— Angie Thomas

199. “I wanna make sure I got this right. Does he mean the same niece I took care of while he was locked up? Huh? The one I took to her first day of school because he took a charge for his so-called boy? The one I held when she cried for her daddy?”

— Angie Thomas

200. “I hear you, but Khalil didn’t have to sell drugs,” I say. “You stopped doing it.” “True, but unless you’re in his shoes, don’t judge him.”

— Angie Thomas