Suzanne Collins Quotes

“When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts.”

“As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve.”

“I’m ashamed I never tried to help her in the woods. That I let the Capitol kill the boy and mutilate her without lifting a finger. Just like I was watching the Games.”

“Why don’t you just be yourself? … No one can help but admire your spirit.”

“Gale gave me a sense of security I’d lacked since my father’s death. His companionship replaced the long solitary hours in the woods. I became a much better hunter when I didn’t have to look over my shoulder constantly, when someone was watching my back…Being out in the woods with Gale…sometimes I was actually happy.”

“I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forever.”

“I bite my lip, feeling inferior. While I’ve been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity. His purity of self.”

“As I hike along, I feel certain I’m still holding the screen in the Capitol, so I’m careful to continue to hide my emotions. But what a good time Claudius Templesmith must be having with his guest commentators, dissecting Peeta’s behavior, my reaction. What to make of it all? Has Peeta revealed his true colors? How does this affect the betting odds? Will we lose sponsors? Do we even have sponsors? Yes, I feel certain we do, or did.”

“Remember, we’re madly in love, so it’s all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.”

“Stupid people are dangerous.”

“I always channel my emotions into my work. That way, I don’t hurt anyone but myself.”

“Technically, I am unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do. Especially if the target is unprepared.”

“Rue’s death has forced me to confront my own fury against the cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us. But here, even more strongly than at home, I feel my impotence. There’s no way to take revenge on the Capitol. Is there?”

“I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.”

“The idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die. And it’s not about the sponsors. And it’s not about what will happen back home. And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread.”

“My nightmares are usually about losing you. I’m okay once I realize you’re here.”

“You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”

“Destroying things is much easier than making them.”

“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”

“I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there’s no relief in waking.”

“You’ve got about as much charm as a dead slug.”

“Some walks you have to take alone.”

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.”

“Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!”

“I must have loved you a lot.”

“Whoever is picked first, the other will have the option of volunteering to take his place. I already know what will happen. Peeta will ask Haymitch to let him go into the arena with me no matter what. For my sake. To protect me.”

″‘The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol’s plans. The symbol of the rebellion.‘”

“Not only are we in the districts forced to remember the iron grip of the Capitol’s power each year, we are forced to celebrate it. And this year, I am one of the stars of the show. I will have to travel from district to district, to stand before the cheering crowds who secretly loathe me, to look down into the faces of the families whose children I have killed.”

“It’s an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with.”

″‘Why did you do it anyway?‘he says. ‘I don’t know. To show them that I’m more than just a piece in their Games?’ I say.”

“If it were up to me, I would try to forget the Hunger Games entirely. Never speak of them. Pretend they were nothing but a bad dream. But the Victory Tour makes that impossible.”

“He puts the chain with the locket around my neck, then rests his hand over the spot where our baby would be. ‘You’re going to make a great mother, you know,’ he says.”

″‘I have a problem, Miss Everdeen,’ says President Snow. ‘A problem that began the moment you pulled out those poisonous berries in the arena.’ That was the moment when I guessed that if the Gamemakers had to choose between watching Peeta and me commit suicide – which would mean having no victor – and letting us both live, they would take the latter.”

“I owe it to the rebels who, emboldened by Cinna’s example, might be fighting to bring down the Capitol at this moment. My refusal to play the Games on the Capitol’s terms is to be my last act of rebellion. So I grit my teeth and will myself to be a player. ”

“I forget the rest of the gym and the victors and how miserable I am and lose myself in the shooting. When I manage to take down five birds in one round, I realize it’s so quiet I can hear each one hit the floor. I turn and see the majority of the victors have stopped to watch me. Their faces show everything from envy to hatred to admiration.”

″‘And what exactly were you trying to accomplish?’ Haymitch asks in a very measured voice. ‘I’m not sure. I just wanted to hold them accountable, if only for a moment,’ says Peeta. ‘For killing that little girl.‘”

“One way or the other, I have a very valuable piece of information. And if they know I have it, they might do something to alter the force field so I can’t see the aberration anymore. So I lie.”

“I still don’t understand what happened there. Why he [Finnick] essentially abandoned her [Mags] to carry Peeta. Why she not only didn’t question it, but ran straight to her death without a moment’s hesitation. Was it because she was so old that her days were numbered, anyway?”

“Well, what did I think? That the victors’ chain of locked hands last night would result in some sort of universal truce in the arena? No, I never believed that. But I guess I had hoped people might show some . . . what? Restraint? Reluctance, at least. Before they jumped right into massacre mode.”

“There was a plan to break us out of the arena from the moment the Quell was announced. The victor tributes from 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11 had varying degrees of knowledge about it. Plutarch Heavensbee has been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow the Capitol.”

“I look up into those blue eyes that no amount of dramatic makeup can make truly deadly and remember how, just a year ago, I was prepared to kill him. Convinced he was trying to kill me. Now everything is reversed. I’m determined to keep him alive, knowing the cost will be my own life, but the part of me that is not so brave as I could wish is glad that it’s Peeta, not Haymitch, beside me.”

“That’s when I hear the scream. So full of fear and pain it ices my blood. And so familiar. I drop the spile, forget where I am or what lies ahead, only know I must reach her, protect her. I run wildly in the direction of the voice, heedless of danger, ripping through vines and branches, through anything that keeps me from reaching her.”

″‘Like you said, it’s going to be bad no matter how you slice it. And whatever Peeta wants, it’s his turn to be saved. We both owe him that.’ My voice takes on a pleading tone. ‘Besides, the Capitol hates me so much, I’m as good as dead now. He still might have a chance.‘”

″‘In several of [the districts], people viewed your little trick with the berries as an act of defiance, not an act of love. And if a girl from District Twelve of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same?’ he says. ‘What is to prevent, say, an uprising?‘”

“Never underestimate the power of a brilliant stylist.”

“It isn’t enough, what I’ve done in the past, defying the Capitol in the Games, providing a rallying point. I must now become the actual leader, the face, the voice, the embodiment of the revolution.”

“None of the people we lost were idiots. They knew what they were doing. They followed you because they believed you really could kill Snow.”

“I’m in Cinna’s Mockingjay suit, the only scars visible are on my neck, forearms, and hands. Octavia secures my Mockingjay pin over my heart and we step back to look in the mirror. I can’t believe how normal they’ve made me look on the outside when inwardly I’m such a wasteland.”

“Maybe I’ll be like that man in ‘The Hanging Tree’. Still waiting for an answer.”

“The problem is, I can’t tell what real anymore, and what’s made up.”

“Why am I not dead? I should be dead. It would best for everyone if I were dead.”

“Because that’s what you and I do. Protect each other.”

“They’ll either want to kill you, kiss you, or be you.”

“Miss Everdeen I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other.”

“All of these months of taking it for granted that Peeta thought I was wonderful are over. Finally, he can see me for who I really am. Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly. And I hate him for it.”

“Let the Seventy-sixth Hunger Games begin!”

“Heart pounding, adrenaline burning through me, everyone is my enemy. Except Gale. My hunting partner, the person who has my back. There’s nothing to do but move forward, killing whoever come into our path.”

“I knew I’d misjudged you. That you do love him. I’m not saying in what way. Maybe you don’t know yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him.”

“Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without.”

“Now Gregor knew what all the fuss was about. To his eyes, Temp looked exactly like the other twenty roaches sitting around. How on Earth could Boots have picked him out of the crowd?”

″‘Fly you high, Gregor the Overlander,’ said Vikus. Gregor struggled with how to respond. Should he ignore Vikus? Let him know that none of them, not even an Overlander, could forgive him? Just as he had steeled himself against replying, Gregor thought of the last two years, seven months, and was it fifteen days now? There were so many things he wished he’d said to his dad when he’d had the chance. Things like how special it was when they went on the roof at night and tried to find the stars. Or how much he loved it when they took the subway out to the stadium to watch a baseball game. Or just that he felt lucky that out of all the people in the world, his dad was his dad. He didn’t have room inside him for any more unspoken words. The bats were rising into the air. He only had a second. ‘Fly you high, Vikus!’ he yelled. ‘Fly you high!’ Vikus turned back, and Gregor could see tears shining on his cheeks. He lifted up a hand to Gregor in thanks.” And then they were gone.”

“The Underlanders hadn’t been rude when they’d wanted him to bathe. They had been trying to keep him alive!”

“‘You asked why the rats hate Overlanders so deeply. It is because they know one will be the warrior of the prophecy,’ said Vikus. ‘Oh, I see,’ said Gregor. ‘So, when’s he coming?’ Vikus fixed his eyes on Gregor. ‘I believe he is already here.‘”

“Of course, courage only counts when you can count.”

“And then there was Tick. Brave little Tick, who had flown into the faces of an army of rats to save his baby sister. Tick - who never spoke much. Tick - who shared her food. Tick - who was after all just a roach. Just a roach who had given all the time she had left so that Boots could have more.”

“‘Hope,’ said Vikus. ‘There are times it will be very hard to find. Times when it will be much easier to choose hate instead. But if you want to find peace, you must first be able to hope it is possible.‘”

“Beware, Underlanders, time hangs by a thread. The hunters are hunted, white water runs red. The Gnawers will strike to extinguish the rest. The hope of the hopeless resides in a quest. An Overland warrior, a son of the sun, May bring us back light, he may bring us back none. But gather your neighbors and follow his call Or rats will most surely devour us all. Two over, two under, of royal descent, Two flyers, two crawlers, two spinners assent. One gnawer beside and one lost up ahead. And eight will be left when we count up the dead. The last who will die must decide where he stands. The fate of the eight is contained in his hands. So bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps, As life may be death and death life again reaps.”

“In one horrible moment the last piece of the prophecy became clear. So bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps, As life may be death and death life again reaps. He had to leap, and by his death, the others would live. That was it. That was what Sandwich had been trying to say all along, and by now he believed in Sandwich. He put on a final burst of speed, just like the coach taught him in track. He gave everything he had. In the last few steps before the canyon he felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg, and then the ground gave way under his feet. Gregor the Overlander leaped.”

“His mom said Boots never knew a stranger, which meant she though everybody in the world was her friend.”

″‘There are evils beyond death,‘said his sister. ‘Fly you high, Henry. Fly you high.‘”

“‘And then, if you make it to bedtime, you feel the joy of cheating death out of one more day,’ she said. ‘Do you see?‘”

“I will say this for you Warrior, you do not lack boldness.”

“A light was on in the kitchen. His mother sat at the kitchen table, as still as a statue. Her hands were clasped together, and she stared fixatedly at a small stain on the tablecloth. Gregor remembered seeing her that way so many nights after his dad had disappeared. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to scare her or shock her or ever give her any more pain. So, he stepped into the light of the kitchen and said the one thing he knew she wanted to hear most in the world. ‘Hey, Mom. We’re home.‘”

“‘Yes, I’m a mouse. Squeak, squeak. Now shoo-shoo back to your little bug friends,’ said Ripred, picking up a hunk of dried beef. He tore a off a piece with his teeth and noticed Boots hadn’t moved. He pulled back his lips to reveal a row of jagged teeth and gave her a sharp hiss.”

“The mighty warrior excused himself and changed a diaper.”

“‘I guess after tonight Boots won’t think the whole world is her friend,‘” thought Gregor. She had to find out sometime, but it still made him sad.”

“He felt around desperately for a weapon. What did he have? Diapers? Cookies? Oh, why hadn’t they given him a sword? He was the stupid warrior, wasn’t he? His fingers dug in the leather bag and closed around the root beer can. Root beer! He yanked out the can shaking it with all his might. ‘Attack! Attack!’ he yelled.”

“It is the Ring Dance. It is said the crawlers perform it only in the greatest secrecy for ones they believe to be chosen.′ [...] ‘Chosen to give them time,’ said Vikus, as if that explained it all. Gregor translated that in his head to mean’chosen to give them life.‘”

″‘Whether he is banished for treason or bond breakage, I care not. I just want him gone. Who among us could ever trust him again?’ shouted a woman. [...] ‘I could!’ yelled Gregor, silencing the crowd. ‘I trust him with my life!’ And then he knew what he needed to do.”