Angie Thomas (born 1988) is an American author best known for her acclaimed young adult novels.

Quotes

• I compare Bri and Starr to Biggie and Tupac…Without the beef! Tupac was very community-orientated, and that’s how Starr is. But Bri, similar to Biggie, she’s about making it, she’s about seeing her dreams come to life. She’s about trying to save her family, and there’s nothing wrong with that. So that’s where they’re different, but they’re similar in the fact that they are both powerful young women who know they have voices, and they both understand how they can use those voices to affect an entire generation.
  • On how she compares her main protagonists in “Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give: 'Books play a huge part in resistance'” in The Guardian (2019 Jan 27)

• I'm okay with people saying “oh the language makes me uncomfortable,” but if the language is what makes you uncomfortable, consider yourself privileged. I'm more uncomfortable about the killing of unarmed black people in this country.
  • On choosing to use profanity in her book The Hate U Give in “Author Angie Thomas: Burn It All Down Or Use Those Emotions In My Art” in To the Best of Our Knowledge (2019 Jan 14)

• Teenagers give me hope. We write them off so often. But I'm seeing a lot of things in this generation that’s coming up that gives me a lot of hope for the future. So I tell them when I'm in the old folks home, I think I can relax because I think you guys are going to do a great job.
  • On looking to the next generation for hope in “Author Angie Thomas: Burn It All Down Or Use Those Emotions In My Art” in To the Best of Our Knowledge (2019 Jan 14)

• So many black kids are put in that position, so I wanted to show that there is no one way to talk black. There is a stereotype that if you sound ghetto, and you use a lot of slang, that makes you black. I wanted to show this girl who exists in these two different worlds. Which Starr is the real Starr? There are so many adults who identify with that, too. I went through it myself when I was in college…
  • On having her protagonist Starr struggle with code-switching in The Hate U Give in “Talking With Angie Thomas, Author of the Best-selling YA Novel Inspired by Black Lives Matter” in The Cut (2017 Mar 20)

External links