“Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can't put yourself in a situation ...” — Jason Reynolds Quote

“Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can't put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable, then you will never grow. You will never change. You'll never learn.”

“It wasn't that the teachers were bad. From what I can remember, they were pretty good. It was about the selection of books. It was about not seeing my young life reflected back to me: my family dynamics, the noise and complexities of my neighborhood, the things I loved, like ice cream trucks and Kool-Aid.”

“I believe that every character is a setting, a world with moving parts, and on the other hand, every setting is, in fact, a character - a living breathing thing with personality and backstory. The way stories come to life, at least for me, is when these elements commune in relationship to one another.”

“I was eight years old when I got the talk about what to do if a police officer stops me. I was 15 when I was face-down on the curb for the first time.”

“Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle.”

“One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going.”

“All things are only transitory.”

“You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.”

“Death means change our clothes. Clothes become old, then time to come change. So this body become old, and then time come, take young body.”

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

“The things you cannot change you can't waste your time on.”