Dear Justyce Quotes
"But Quan’s only nine. Running away alone is hard enough. Trying to bring a four-year-old sister and a two-year-old brother just isn’t gonna work."
"He couldn’t really do anything anyway. Though Olaf (Dwight is the guy’s actual name) isn’t too, too big, he’s a whole heck of a lot stronger than Quan."
"As Wynwood Heights Park looms up on his left, Quan lifts the hem of his shirt to wipe his face. It’s the fourth time he’s done it, so there’s a wet spot now."
"Inside the cylindrical base, there are buttons to push and dials to turn and a ladder that leads up to an 'observation deck' with a little window. It’s Quan’s favorite spot in the world—though he’d never admit that to anyone."
"My mom’s boyfriend is an asshole. He’s my little brother and sister’s dad, so like I kinda get why my mama keeps dealing with him… But I hate him."
"Every time he come around, he mad about somethin’, and he takes it out on my mom."
"It was real nice to meet you, Quan. Even, uhh…despite the circumstances."
"The thought of his sass-mouthed little sister brings fresh tears to Quan’s eyes."
"He’d fallen asleep on the leather sectional in Daddy’s living room while watching Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (the movie), and was dreaming about Count Olaf—who’d gotten a tan, it seemed, and looked suspiciously like his mama’s 'boyfriend,' Dwight—falling into a pit of giant yellow snakes."
"I wish they would’ve never made that announcement. Winning an academic bowl isn’t 'cool.' Everybody just makes fun of me."
"I’ve never told anybody about the night my dad got arrested. It was a couple years after you and me met in the rocket ship. I was eleven. Cops busted up in the house in the dead of night like they owned the place and just…took him."
"It’s not like I didn’t try. I remember this one time a teacher accused me of cheating because I got a good grade on a test. And my mama believed HIM."
"You ain’t never brought nothin’ higher than an eighty-seven percent up in here. I’m supposed to buy this sudden improvement hook, line and sinker, huh?"
"She’d fallen asleep in front of the TV. Arms still crossed."
"Quan sighs. Manny does too. But they don’t see each other. And they certainly don’t speak."
"The whole thing was so ridiculous. He was thirteen. Eighth grade."
"The convenience store he walked into wasn’t new, but it’d been remodeled."
"And wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. About any of it."
"So you wanna act like an adult, the law will treat your ass like one."
"Funniest part is the only reason dude was even workin' with me is because I got caught with a dime."
"Meanwhile ain’t no ceremonies for kids like us, but if we get in trouble we get treated like adults."
"A part of Quan that wished his awareness had a knob he could just crank down to zero."
"I get it, li’l man. First time is scary as fuck."
"Not with a dude mad over three-dollar cards staring him down like he’d busted in with a mask and a Glock and tried to rob the place."
"Don’t make no difference now because here I am."
"Nobody should have to live the way y’all were livin', man. Especially not one of my guys."
"The safety of our members and their families is one of the highest priorities of this organization. Any person or thing threatening that safety will be swiftly taken care of."
"That other kind of good, though? As Quan looks around, he knows that his life has gone the way of this playground: once bright and bouncy and filled with ways to take flight (both real and imaginary), now beat down and broken. Hopeless."
"For not writing you sooner. Not that I could’ve responded to the letters you sent ME—for reasons wholly outside my control, I only gained access to them a few days ago, almost a full year after you stopped writing. But even that is saying something, isn’t it? Whether I knew about it or not, you wrote to me consistently for over four years without ever receiving a response."
"I didn’t realize I could make YOU feel like that, Dad. It seems so backwards. You’re the parent and I’m the kid. I guess I just assumed my feelings toward you didn’t really matter because you’re the one with the authority?"
"How the hell’s a person supposed to give something they ain’t never had?"
"We all know who Daddy Christensen would go after if something happened to you on this ride."
"So what do we do? Like…to help him. All three of us are prelaw students at two of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world."
"Imprisoning the wrong person is not true justice."
"When you grow up feeling like no one's on your side, and you suddenly find people who are, it literally changes your brain. That loyalty Quan feels isn't merely a choice. It's a psychological imperative."
"I need you to tell me about your confession, man."
"We're on your side, Quan. Our goal is to get you out of here and reintegrated into society as a vital contributor to the betterment of the world."
"It's not like I haven't tried to be and do good. Like yeah, when I was like fourteen, fifteen, I stopped caring cuz it didn’t really seem like anybody cared about ME."
"Just don't want to see another African American boy wind up in prison, especially for a crime he didn't commit."
"You a trip, man. Vernell is lucky. Most dudes around here don’t get a friend like you. Keep it up."
"Everyone should have somebody who believes in ’em. Like no matter what they’ve done. Somebody who won’t give up on them."
"No need to go to outer space. Everything I need is right here."
"Sometimes all it takes to bring about a shift in direction is knowing there’s someone out there who believes you’re valuable."
"I don’t have to meet you to know that you are infinitely valuable and that you have something no one else on earth has to offer the world."
"Sometimes a smile or a genuine 'Hey, how are you?' has the power to move an emotional mountain."