Top 25 Angie Thomas Quotes

A lot of people are quick to say that saying ‘black lives matter’ makes you anti-cop. All lives should indeed matter, but we have a systemic problem in this country in which black lives do not matter enough.

As a black woman, I feel like I have a unique experience that we don’t often see in media portrayals of the South.

Literature plays a huge role in examining difficult real-life issues.

A lot of people involved in the Black Lives Matter movement are actually sticking up for those other lives. They are turning out for their Muslim brothers and sisters who are now being targeted.

In the YA community, we are fighting for you and alongside you. When you make your voice heard, we’re gonna be even louder on your behalf. That’s definitely what I would like for teenagers to know. We’ve got you. We got you. I promise we do.

From my anger, frustration, and hurt, I wrote the short story that would later become ‘The Hate U Give.’

I look at books as being a form of activism. Sometimes they’ll show us a side of the world that we might not have known about.

I really do hope ‘The Hate U Give’ provides mirrors for readers who don’t often get them in books. I’ve had so many young black girls tell me just how thrilled they are to see someone who looks like them on the cover. I hope that they see themselves in the pages as well.

So often, blackness is seen in a negative light.

I want you to realize your voice matters.

Especially for young POC, when we enter majority-white spaces, we feel the need to assimilate, to blend in, to prove ourselves. I don’t think we discuss it enough.

For me, hip-hop was a mirror when young-adult books were not. I could see myself in a Nas song more than I could see myself in a book.

The Hogwarts houses are really gangs. They have their own colours, their own hideouts, and they are always riding for each other, like gangs.

I wish when I was 15 that I realized my voice was important and that even my thoughts and my opinions had value. Had I known, I probably would’ve spoken up more. I probably would’ve found my activism sooner and become a writer sooner.

Writing is a form of activism.

YA does a fantastic job of being socially aware and, at the same time, entertaining.

I’ve always been a huge Tupac fan, and I often listen to him for inspiration or when I’m stuck.

I often say that I want to write like Tupac rapped. I could listen to his album, and within a few minutes, I could go from thinking deeply to laughing to crying to partying.

Trayvon Martin was 17, Mike Brown was young, Tamir Rice was 12. And so young people are affected by it, possibly the most affected, because they’re seeing themselves.

I think that the more of us who take the time to understand how someone else is feeling, the more likely we are to resist alongside them.

Art is activism.

You just have to find your activism, and don’t let anyone tell you what that should look like. If you’re doing the work, and you’re getting someone to think, you’re on the right path.

I think, as a writer, sometimes you do worry, ‘Am I just writing, or am I putting the burden of African-Americans on my shoulder and carrying it?’ But if we just write the stories that we’re supposed to write, that’s when we have the biggest impact.

We’re seeing young people find their own voices and find their activism.

The transition from unknown to known-in-publishing has been empowering but also challenging. It’s an honor to know that people actually want to know what I think about certain issues, but I also have to be careful about what I say or, rather, how I say it. The Internet is forever, y’all.