Quotes from The Hate U Give

“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“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, quote from The Hate U Give

“Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“That's the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“I can't change where I come from or what I've been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug.
He lived, but not nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life I'll remember how he died.
Fairy tale? No. But I'm not giving up on a better ending.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“You can destroy wood and brick, but you can't destroy a movement.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Pac said Thug Life stood for 'The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody'.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“I’ve seen it happen over and over again: a black person gets killed just for being black, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve Tweeted RIP hashtags, reblogged pictures on Tumblr, and signed every petition out there. I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down.
Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Once you've seen how broken someone is it's like seeing them naked—you can't look at them the same anymore.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Intentions always look better on paper than in reality.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Daddy once told me there's a rage passed down to every black man from his ancestors, born the moment they couldn't stop the slave masters from hurting their families. Daddy also said there's nothing more dangerous than when that rage is activated.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Funny. Slave masters thought they were making a difference in black people’s lives too. Saving them from their “wild African ways.” Same shit, different century. I wish people like them would stop thinking that people like me need saving.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“People say misery loves company, but I think it’s like that with anger too.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“People like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“A hairbrush is not a gun.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“To every kid in Georgetown and in all “the Gardens” of the world: your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be roses that grow in the concrete.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Holy shit. Who the fuck complains about going to Harry Potter World? Or Butter Beer? Or wands?”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“When I was twelve, my parents had two talks with me.

One was the usual birds and bees. Well, I didn't really get the usual version. My mom, Lisa, is a registered nurse, and she told me what went where, and what didn't need to go here, there, or any damn where till I'm grown. Back then, I doubted anything was going anywhere anyway. While all the other girls sprouted breasts between sixth and seventh grade, my chest was as flat as my back.

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."

I knew it must've been serious. Daddy has the biggest mouth of anybody I know, and if he said to be quiet, I needed to be quiet.

I hope somebody had the talk with Khalil.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“When you fight, you put yourself out there, not caring who you hurt or if you'll get hurt.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“If bravery is a medical condition, everybody's misdiagnosed me.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“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, quote from The Hate U Give

“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, quote from The Hate U Give

“Right. Lack of opportunities," Daddy says. "Corporate America don't bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain't quick to hire us. Then, shit, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many of the schools in our neighborhoods don't prepare us well enough. That's why when your momma talked about sending you and your brothers to Williamson, I agreed. Our schools don't get the resources to equip you like Williamson does. It's easier to find some crack that it is the find a good school around here.
"Now, think 'bout this," he says. "How did the drugs even get in our neighborhood? This is a multibillion-dollar industry we talking 'bout, baby. That shit is flown into our communities, but I don't know anybody with a private jet. Do you?"
"No."
"Exactly. Drugs come from somewhere, and they're destroying our community," he says. "You got folks like Brenda, who think they need them survive, and then you got the Khalils, who think they need to sell them to survive. The Brendas can't get jobs unless they're clean, and they can't pay for rehab unless they got jobs. When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. That's the hate they're giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That's Thug Life.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“You need Saturday to recover and Sunday to repent.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“The truth casts a shadow over the kitchen—people like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

“This is exactly what They expect you to do," Momma says.
They with a capital T.
There's Them and then there's Us.
Sometimes They look like Us and don't recognize They are Us.”
― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give

About the author

Popular quotes

“They believe what they see, because they want to believe. They want to believe that I am normal. And for the brief moments I am with them, I fool myself into thinking the same thing.”
― A.R. Torre, quote from The Girl in 6E

“Five months after Zoran's disappearance, his wife gave birth to a girl. The mother was unable to nurse the child. The city was being shelled continuously. There were severe food shortages. Infants, like the infirm and the elderly, were dying in droves. The family gave the baby tea for five days, but she began to fade.

"She was dying," Rosa Sorak said. "It was breaking our hearts."

Fejzić, meanwhile, was keeping his cow in a field on the eastern edge of Goražde, milking it at night to avoid being hit by Serbian snipers.

"On the fifth day, just before dawn, we heard someone at the door," said Rosa Sorak. "It was Fadil Fejzić in his black rubber boots. He handed up half a liter of milk he came the next morning, and the morning after that, and after that. Other families on the street began to insult him. They told him to give his milk to Muslims, to let the Chetnik children die. He never said a word. He refused our money. He came 442 days, until my daughter-in-law and granddaughter left Goražde for Serbia."

The Soraks eventually left and took over a house that once belonged to a Muslim family in the Serbian-held town of Kopaci. Two miles to the east. They could no longer communicate with Fejzić.

The couple said they grieved daily for their sons. They missed their home. They said they could never forgive those who took Zoran from them. But they also said that despite their anger and loss, they could not listen to other Sebs talking about Muslims, or even recite their own sufferings, without telling of Fejzić and his cow. Here was the power of love. What this illiterate farmer did would color the life of another human being, who might never meet him, long after he was gone, in his act lay an ocean of hope.”
― Chris Hedges, quote from War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

“Throughout history, different cultures have produced creation myths that explain our origins as the result of cosmic forces shaping our destiny. These histories have helped us to ward off feelings of insignificance.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson, quote from Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution

“Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.”
― Walt Whitman, quote from Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition

“After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples; they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among them Alice recognised the White Rabbit:”
― Lewis Carroll, quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.