Top 80 Jason Reynolds Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I ain’t got enough mad for both of y’all, so since you my responsibility, I’m gonna save all the mad for you.”

— Jason Reynolds

52. “I’d just circle the room, because when you keep moving, people think you going somewhere, like you on a mission and shouldn’t be bothered. Like you busy. And that’s better than people realizing that you not busy at all. That you not okay with lunchrooms that don’t have trays, and that ain’t big enough spaces to disappear in, and that don’t stink of week-old dirty mop water, which I now know is the familiar smell of love and friendship.”

— Jason Reynolds

53. “We had been texting for exactly thirteen minutes, asking random questions, trying to figure out if we knew any of the same people, or if we liked the same kind of music – the usual interview process you go through when you’re trying to get the job as boyfriend.”

— Jason Reynolds

54. “I SWEARSOMETIMES it feels God be flashing photos of his children, awkward, amazing, tucked in his wallet for the world to see.”

— Jason Reynolds

55. “Because if it did- if it disappeared, if the voices vanished and you were no longer overtaken by the taunts of your own potential, no longer blinded by a perfect vision of your purpose, no longer engorged with passion- what would happen?”

— Jason Reynolds

56. “My dad’s in jail for trying to shoot me and my mother,” I blurted.”

— Jason Reynolds

57. “My hands were already up, a reflex from seeing a cop coming toward me.”

— Jason Reynolds

58. “He said we all showed promise. Well, that was something I had never heard before. That I was showing promise.”

— Jason Reynolds

59. “Do you know the stats? It’s something like black people are twice as likely to have no weapons on them when they’re killed by cops. Twice as likely! Should I run down the list of the people this has happened to? Calm down? Let’s paint their names on the walls and watch, there’ll be enough to give the entire hospital a fresh new look. Then tell me to calm down. He could’ve been killed!”

— Jason Reynolds

60. “DON’T NOBODY believe nothing these days which is why I haven’t told nobody the story I’m about to tell you. And truth is, you probably ain’t gon’ believe it either gon’ think I’m lying or I’m losing it, but I’m telling you, this story is true. It happened to me. Really. It did.”

— Jason Reynolds

61. “The sound you hear in your head, the one people call ears ringing, sounds less like a bell, and more like a flatline.”

— Jason Reynolds

62. “Science says the races are biologically equal so if they’re not in society, the only reason why can be racism.”

— Jason Reynolds

63. “Turned out, freedom in America was like quicksand. It looked solid until a Black person tried to stand on it. Then it became clear that it was a sinkhole.”

— Jason Reynolds

64. “Again, dove into each other. This time the hug, a mix of I miss you and who are you and I’m confused and I’m cracking and I don’t know what the hell to do or where the hell to go. My father’s hand gripped my back as I did my best to bury myself in his armpit, to get lost in the new and strangely familiar feeling of fatherhood.”

— Jason Reynolds

65. “Those that scar you are you.”

— Jason Reynolds

66. “I really, really didn’t. I just wanted him to stop beating me. I just wanted to live.”

— Jason Reynolds

67. “Paul’d gotten it all wrong. Becoming a cop would not make him a hero- but what kind of cop he became could have.”

— Jason Reynolds

68. “Fooled by racist ideas, I did not fully realize that the only thing wrong with Black people is that we think something is wrong with Black people. I did not fully realize that the only thing extraordinary about White people is that they think something is extraordinary about White people. There are lazy, hardworking, wise, unwise, harmless, and harmful individuals of every race, but no racial group is better or worse than another racial group in any way.”

— Jason Reynolds

69. “If people aren’t careful, they can be tricked into believing a big deal, is a done deal. Like there’s no more fight left. No reason to keep pushing. That freedom is an actual destination.”

— Jason Reynolds

70. “Just so you know, patent leather shoes should only be for men who are getting married. Nothing about patent leather says “war.”

— Jason Reynolds

71. “My brain exploded into a million thoughts and only one thought at the same time – please don’t kill me.”

— Jason Reynolds

72. “How do you tell water ain’t nothing funny about drowing?”

— Jason Reynolds

73. “And without power, all the protesting in the world meant nothing. The shift went from fighting for civil rights to fighting for freedom. The difference between the two is simple. One implies a fight for fairness. The other, a right to live.”

— Jason Reynolds

74. “Thank you, young people. I wish I could name you all. But I’d rather you name yourselves.”

— Jason Reynolds

75. “Fooled by racist ideas, I did not fully realize that the only thing wrong with Black people is that we think something is wrong with Black people. I did not fully realize that the only thing extraordinary about White people is that they think something is extraordinary about White people.”

— Jason Reynolds

76. “When really he was the kid who is Spider-Man. Well, as of the night before, the kid formally known as Spider-Man.”

— Jason Reynolds

77. “The squawking mockingbird had stopped its pecking and had transformed into a panther, brandishing teeth.”

— Jason Reynolds

78. “Either way, Zurara’s documentation of the racist idea that Africans needed slavery in order to be fed and taught Jesus, and that it was all ordained by God, began to seep in and stick to the European cultural psyche.”

— Jason Reynolds

79. “So, slavery, though a brutal attack on Black humanity, was really just proof that White people were bad believers in Jesus.”

— Jason Reynolds

80. “Like, for me, the best way to describe it is, I got a lot of scream inside.”

— Jason Reynolds

81. “What I mean by that is we – all of us – have to fight against performance and lean into participation. We have to be participants. Active.”

— Jason Reynolds

82. “So when I was done sitting at the bus stop in front of the gym, and came across all those kids on the track at the park, practicing, I had to go see what was going on, because running ain’t nothing I ever had to practice. It’s just something I knew how to do.”

— Jason Reynolds

83. “Shawn’s dead. So strange to say. So sad. But I guess not surprising, which I guess is even stranger, and even sadder.”

— Jason Reynolds