Suzanne Collins Quotes

In our world, I rank music somewhere between hair ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness. ~ Suzanne Collins

On my family: My mother buries her grief in her work. Having no work, grief buries me. ~ Suzanne Collins

At a few minutes before four, Peeta turns to me again. "Your favorite colour ... it's green?"
"That's right." Then I think of something to add. "And yours is orange."
"Orange?" He seems unconvinced.
"Not bright orange. But soft. Like the sunset," I say. "At least, that's what you told me once."
"Oh." He closes his eyes briefly, maybe trying to conjure up that sunset, then nods his head. "Thank you."
But more words tumble out. "You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces."
Then I dive into my tent before I do something stupid like cry. ~ Suzanne Collins

I'm banged up and bloody and someone seems to be hammering on my left temple from inside my skull. ~ Suzanne Collins

Poison. The perfect weapon for a snake. ~ Suzanne Collins

The phrase Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free is the most troubling because at first you think he's talking about when he told her to flee, presumably to safety. But then you wonder if he meant for her to run to him. To death. ~ Suzanne Collins

Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us! ~ Suzanne Collins

inside me, the liquor feels like fire and I like it. "Maybe it should be you," I say matter-of-factly as I pull up a chair. "You hate life, anyway." "Very true," says Haymitch. "And since last time I tried to keep you alive . . . seems like I'm obligated to save the boy this time." "That's another good point," I say, wiping my nose and tipping up the bottle again. "Peeta's argument is that since I chose you, I now owe him. Anything he wants. And what he wants is the chance to go in ~ Suzanne Collins

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. ~ Suzanne Collins

It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down. ~ Suzanne Collins

They recognize me. Of course they recognize me. My face is uncovered and I'm standing here outside of District 12 pointing an arrow at them. Who else would I be? ~ Suzanne Collins

Then I get it, what it means. At least, for me. District 12 only has three existing victors to choose from. Two male. One female ...
I am going back into the arena. ~ Suzanne Collins

Where's your boyfriend, District 12? Still hanging on?" She asks.
Well, as long as we're talking I'm alive. "He's out there now. Hunting Cato," I snarl at her. Then I scream at the top of my lungs. "Peeta!"
Clove jams her fist into my windpipe, very effectively cutting off my voice. But her head's whipping from side to side, and I know for a moment she's at least considering I'm telling the truth. Since no Peeta appears to save me, she turns back to me.
"Liar," she says with a grin. "He's nearly dead. Cato knows where he cut him. You've probably got him strapped up in some tree while you try to keep his heart going. What's in the pretty little backpack? That medicine for Lover Boy? Too bad he'll never get it. ~ Suzanne Collins

Oh, be quiet, Fo-Fo. ~ Suzanne Collins

I'll never know what it was he wanted me to remember. ~ Suzanne Collins

I merely feel emptyness. A hollow of dead brush where flowers use to bloom. ~ Suzanne Collins

Fine. I'll train. But I'm going to the stinking capitol if I have to kill a crew and fly there myself." Says Johanna.
"Probably best not to bring that up in training," I say. "But it's nice to know I'll have a ride. ~ Suzanne Collins

He tucks me in and says good night but I catch his hand and hold him there. A side effect of the sleep syrup is that it makes people less inhibited, like white liquor, and I know I have to control my tongue. ~ Suzanne Collins

Katniss....he's still trying to keep you alive. ~ Suzanne Collins

And then he gives me a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me. ~ Suzanne Collins

Actually, Katniss isn't complaining because she has no intention of staying with the "Star Squad," but she recognizes the necessity of getting to the Capitol before carrying out any plan. ~ Suzanne Collins

Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor. ~ Suzanne Collins

He became my confidante, someone with whom I could share thoughts I could never voice ... In exchange, he trusted me with his. ~ Suzanne Collins

Safe to do what?" he says in a gentler tone. "Starve? Work like slaves? Send their kids to the reaping? You haven't hurt people - you've given them an opportunity. ~ Suzanne Collins

Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you. 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. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market. Discuss little more than trades in the Hob, which is the black market where I make most of my money. Even at home, where I am less pleasant, I avoid discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, or food ~ Suzanne Collins

Everyone handles grief differently. ~ Suzanne Collins

You should wear flames more often. They suit you. ~ Suzanne Collins

Countering him. The call does happen, a decision is made, and by evening I'm suited up in my Mockingjay outfit, with my bow slung over my shoulder and an earpiece that connects ~ Suzanne Collins

Then he smiles as if he'd be happy to lie there and gaze at me forever. ~ Suzanne Collins

The children form his human shield. There's ~ Suzanne Collins

I wish they were all dead and we were, too. It would be best.
Well, there's no good response to that. I can hardly dispute it since I was walking around with a syringe to kill Peeta when I found them. Do I really want him dead? What I want ... what I want is to have him back. ~ Suzanne Collins

I look down from the branch I'm perched on. The Careers look murderous. Now I smile.'How have things been with you?' I ask sweetly. ~ Suzanne Collins

It's not wondering what I breathe in, but who, that threatens to choke me. ~ Suzanne Collins

The idea that I've wounded the brute's tiny cat feelings just invites further taunting. But Prim's genuinely distressed for him. So instead, I visualize Buttercup's fur lining a pair of gloves, an image that has helped me deal with him over the years. ~ Suzanne Collins

I nod, then let the conversation drop. But secretly I'm wondering if Haymitch sobered up long enough to help Peeta and me because he thought we just might have the wits to survive. Maybe he wasn't always a drunk. Maybe, in the beginning, he tried to help the tributes. But then it got unbearable. It must be hell to mentor two kids and then watch them die. Year after year after year. I realize that if I get out of here, that will become my job. To mentor the girl from District 12. The idea is so repellent, I thrust it from my mind. ~ Suzanne Collins

My legs, arms, torso, underarms, and parts of my eyebrows have been stripped of the stuff, leaving me like a plucked bird, ready for roasting. ~ Suzanne Collins

Excellent! You almost look like a human being now! ~ Suzanne Collins

It's funny, because even though they're rattling on about the Games, it's all about where they were or what they were doing or how they felt when a specific event occurred ... Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena ~ Suzanne Collins

KEEP CALM and HAVE A SUGAR CUBE ~ Suzanne Collins

It is widely believed that the snails did not even know they overthrew the shiners, so nonexistent was the resistance, said Howard. ~ Suzanne Collins

Katniss," he says. I go over to him and brush the hair back from his eyes. "Thanks for finding me."
"You would have found me if you could," I say. ~ Suzanne Collins

Yes, they have to have a victor. Without a victor, the whole thing would blow up in the Gamemakers' faces. They'd have failed the Capitol. Might possibly even be executed, slowly and painfully, while the cameras broadcast it to every screen in the country. ~ Suzanne Collins

But I Can't let my fear show.absouloutly positively,I am live on every screen in Panem. ~ Suzanne Collins

It starts at midnight. ~ Suzanne Collins

Fine, than I will not have to blame you for killing my friends with your stupidity. -Haymitch ~ Suzanne Collins

No, Finnick repeats. 'Because whatever happened in the past is the past. And no one in this arena was a victor by chance.' He eyes Peeta for a moment. 'Except maybe Peeta.'
Finnick knows then what Haymitch and I know. About Peeta. Being truly, deep-down better than the rest of us. ~ Suzanne Collins

Time to say thank you and farewell! trills Effie at my elbow. It's one of those moments when I just love her compulsive punctuality. We collect Cinna and Portia, and she escorts us around to say good-bye to important people, then herds us to the door. ~ Suzanne Collins

Live your life, take chances, be crazy. Dont wait 'cause right now is the oldest you've ever been & the youngest you'll be ever again ~ Suzanne Collins

Nerrissa? You believe her? Well, you at least have to credit her with a certain instability! Remember when she told you that I was going to take over the Fount with and army of Lobsters?" said Ripred.
You did try to take over the Fount with an army of Lobsters." said Vikus.
Yes, yes, but it was years before she was born. My point is, she flip-flops in and out of time like a fish in shallow waters." answered Ripred. ~ Suzanne Collins

It's the Capitol I hate, for doing this to all of us ~ Suzanne Collins

If I could grow wings, I could fly. Only people can't grow wings," he say's. "Real or not real?"
"Real," I say. "But people don't need wings to survive."
"Mockingjays do. ~ Suzanne Collins

I've just had the opportunity to see the finished film of 'The Hunger Games.' I'm really happy with how it turned out. I feel like the book and the film are individual yet complementary pieces that enhance one another. ~ Suzanne Collins

I pound on the glass, screaming my head off. Everyone ignores me except for some Capitol attendant who appears behind me and offers me a beverage. ~ Suzanne Collins

I think it's very uncomfortable for people to talk to children about war, and so they don't because it's easier not to. But then you have young people at eighteen who are enlisting in the army, and they really don't have the slightest idea what they're getting into. ~ Suzanne Collins

I don't like self-righteous people," I say.
"What's to like?" says Haymitch, who begins sucking the dregs out of the empty bottles. ~ Suzanne Collins

So what should we do with our last few days?"
"I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you," Peete replies.
"Come on, then," I say, pulling him into my room.
It feels like a luxury, sleeping with Peeta again. I didn't realize until now how starved I've been for human closeness. For the feel of him beside me in the darkness. ~ Suzanne Collins

It's one thing to speak of humans' essential nature theoretically, another to consider it when a fist is smashing into your mouth. ~ Suzanne Collins

Katniss, it's just hunting. You're the best hunter I know." Gale

"It's not just hunting. They're armed, they think." --Katniss

"So do you. And you've had more practice. Real practice. You know how to kill." --Gale

"Not people." --Katniss

"How different can it be, really?" --Gale

The awful thing is that if I can forget they're people, it will be no different at all. --Katniss ~ Suzanne Collins

Today I might lose both of them.
I try to imagine a world where both Gale's and Peeta's voices have ceased. Hands stilled. Eyes unblinking. I'm standing over their bodies, having a last look, leaving the room where they lie. But when I open the door to step out into the world, there's only a tremendous void. A pale grey nothingness that is all my future holds. ~ Suzanne Collins

I don't know what I expected from my first meeting with Peeta after the announcement. A few hugs and kisses. A little comfort maybe. Not this. I turn to Haymitch. Don't worry, I'll get you more liquor. ~ Suzanne Collins

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray Forget your woes and let your troubles lay ~ Suzanne Collins

Flavius's foot catches on a metal grate over a circular opening in the floor, and my stomach contracts when I think of why a room would need a drain. The stains of human misery that must have been hosed off these white tiles ... ~ Suzanne Collins

I revise my suicide plan to slow death by morphling. I will become a yellow-skinned bag of bones, with enormous eyes. I'm a couple of days into the plan, making good progress, when something unexpected happens. I begin to sing. At the window, in the shower, in my sleep. Hour after hour of ballads, love songs, mountain airs. All the songs my father taught me before he died, for certainly there has been very little music in my life since. What's amazing is how clearly I remember them. The tunes, the lyrics. My voice, at first rough and breaking on the high notes, warms up into something splendid. A voice that would make the mockingjays fall silent and then tumble over themselves to join in. Days pass, weeks. I watch the snows fall on the ledge outside my window. And in all that time, mine is the only voice I hear. What ~ Suzanne Collins

My mother says healers are born, not made. ~ Suzanne Collins

Clove!" Cato's voice is much nearer now. I can tell by the pain in it that he sees her on the ground.
"You better run now, Fire Girl," says Thresh.
I don't need to be told twice. I flip over and my feet dig into the hard-packed earth as I run away from Thresh and Clove and the sound of Cato's voice. Only when I reach the woods do I turn back for an instant. Thresh and both large backpacks are vanishing over the edge of the plain into the area I've never seen. Cato kneels beside Clove, spear in hand, begging her to stay with him. In a moment, he will realize it's futile, she can't be saved. ~ Suzanne Collins

I can only manage to hold on to one simple thought: an image of Snow's face accompanied by the whisper in my head. I will kill you. ~ Suzanne Collins

Boggs quickly examines my face, then scoops me up and jogs for the runway. Halfway there, I puke on his bulletproof vest. It's hard to tell because he's short of breath, but I think he sighs. ~ Suzanne Collins

The citizens of the Capitol have been drooling over him ever since. Because of his youth, they couldn't really touch him for the first year or two. But ever since he turned sixteen, he's spent his time at the Games being dogged by those desperately in love with him. No one retains his favour for long. He can go through four or five in his annual visit. Old or young, lovely or plain, rich or very rich, he'll keep them company and take their extravagant gifts, but he never stays, and once he's gone he never comes back. ~ Suzanne Collins

We star-crossed lovers of District 12, who suffered so much and enjoyed so little the rewards of our victory, do not seek our fans' favor, grace them with our smiles, or catch their kisses. We are unforgiving.
And I love it. Getting to be myself at last. ~ Suzanne Collins

I just don't want them to change me, if I'm going to die I still want to be me. ~ Suzanne Collins

Remember, girl on fire," he says, "I'm still betting on you. ~ Suzanne Collins

Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he's there, holding me and patting my back. "It's okay. It'll be okay, sweetheart." He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps an arm around me while I sob. ~ Suzanne Collins

I'm relieved Peeta's alive. I tell myself again that if I get killed, his winnings will benefit my mother and Prim the most. This is what I tell myself to explain the conflicting emotions that arise when I think of Peeta. The gratitude that he game an edge by professing his love for me in the interview. The anger at his superiority on the roof. The dread that we may come face-to-face at any moment in this arena. ~ Suzanne Collins

What did Finnick Odair want?" he asks.
I turn and put my lips close to Peeta's and drop my eyelids in imitation of Finnick. "He offered me sugar and wanted to know all my secrets," I say in my best seductive voice.
Peeta laughs. "Ugh. Not really."
"Really," I say. "I'll tell you more when my skin stops crawling. ~ Suzanne Collins

I think of the snarling, cruel exchange back on the hovercraft. The bitterness that followed. But all I say is "I can't believe you didn't rescue Peeta."
"I know," he replies.
There's a sense of incompleteness. And not because he hasn't apologized. But because we were a team. We had a deal to keep Peeta safe. A drunken, unrealistic deal made in the dark of night, but a deal just the same. And in my heart of hearts, I know we both failed.
"Now you say it," I tell him.
"I can't believe you let him out of your sight that night," says Haymitch. ~ Suzanne Collins

Katniss: I'm coming back into focus when Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home.
Peeta: (Gives an unconvincing shake of head.)
Caesar: Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name?
Peeta: Well, there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping.
Caesar: She have another fellow?
Peeta: I don't know, but a lot of boys like her.
Caesar: So, here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down, eh?
Peeta: I don't think it's going to work out. Winning ... won't help in my case.
Caesar: Why ever not?
Peeta: Because ... because ... she came here with me.
Caesar: Oh, that is a piece of bad luck.
Peeta: It's not good.
Caesar: Well, I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady. She didn't know?
Peeta: Not until now. ~ Suzanne Collins

Prettying you up for slaughter?" he suggests. "It's more complicated than that. I know them. They're not evil or cruel. They're not even smart. Hurting them, it's like hurting children. They don't see ... I mean, they don't know ... " I get knotted up in my words. "They don't know what, Katniss?" he says. "That tributes - who are the actual children involved ~ Suzanne Collins

Mutually counting on each other, watching each other's backs, forcing each other to be brave. ~ Suzanne Collins

Stone conquers people every time. ~ Suzanne Collins

Let them go, I tell myself. Say good-bye and forget them. I do my best, thinking of them one by one, releasing them like birds from the protective cages inside me, locking the doors against their return. ~ Suzanne Collins

What is the worst pain? To me, it's always the pain that is present. ~ Suzanne Collins

I trusted him. I put what was precious in Haymitch's hands. & he has betrayed me ~ Suzanne Collins

You don't destroy what you want to
acquire in the future. ~ Suzanne Collins

I just...I just miss him. And I hate being so alone. ~ Suzanne Collins

Not only does he hate me, and want to kill me, he no longer believes I'm human. It was less painful being strangled. ~ Suzanne Collins

Only.. I want to do die as myself ~ Suzanne Collins

Kids have so much screen time, and it's a concern. I know how overloaded I can feel sometimes. ~ Suzanne Collins

You want a piece of advice?" said Ripred.
"Don't bother. I know what you'll say. The whole thing's stupid," said Gregor.
"Quite the contrary. I was going to say that life is short. There are only a few good things in it, really. Don't pretend that one isn't happening." said Ripred. ~ Suzanne Collins

Hey, Finnick, come on in! We figured out how to make you pretty again! ~ Suzanne Collins

It's hard to hate my prep team. They're such total idiots. - Katniss. ~ Suzanne Collins

I'm in a shallow hole, not filled with the humming orange bubbles of my hallucination but with old, dead leaves. ~ Suzanne Collins

I get to the bottom of why I'm so upset. When I do, it's almost too Mortifying to admit. All this 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. ~ Suzanne Collins

No one will forget me. Not my look, not my name. Katniss. The girl who was on fire. ~ Suzanne Collins

On and on we seal the pages with salt water and promises to live well to make their deaths count. ~ Suzanne Collins

The glue of mutual need that bonded us so tightly together for all those years is melting away. Dark patches, not light, show in the spaces between us. ~ Suzanne Collins

Destroying things is much easier than making them. ~ Suzanne Collins

If the careers want me, let them find me. ~ Suzanne Collins

It's like being home again, when they bring in the hopelessly mangled person from the mine explosion, or the woman in her third day of labor, or the famished child struggling against pneumonia and my mother and Prim, they wear that same look on their faces. Now is the times to run away tho the woods, to hide in the trees until the patient is long gone and in another part of the Seam the hammers make the coffin. But I'm held here both by the hovercraft walls and the same force that holds the loved ones of the dying. How often I've seen them, ringed around our kitchen table and I thought, Why don't they leave? Why do they stay to watch?
And now I know. It's because you have no choice. ~ Suzanne Collins

Just one more thing. I kill Snow. ~ Suzanne Collins

Maybe I'll be like the man in the Hanging Tree still waiting for an answer.' Gale who I have never seen cry has tears in his eyes. To keep them from spilling over. I reach forward and press my lips against his. We taste of heat, ashes and misery. ~ Suzanne Collins