Quotes from Suzanne Collins

A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous to me than an unkind one.

One time, when I was in a hide in a tree, waiting motionless for game to wander by, I dozed off and fell three metres to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything. That

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

At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old an rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means goodbye to someone you love.

A hovercraft marked with the Capitol's seal materializes directly over the barricaded children. Scores of silver parachutes rain down on them. Even in this chaos, the children know what silver parachutes contain.

My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. There is no District 12. I am the Mockingjay. I brought down the Capitol. President Snow hates me. He killed my sister. Now I will kill him. And then the Hunger Games will be over.

I remember his words . . . "Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself." . . . and I'm afraid he has hurt himself beyond repair. The significance of my fiery transformation will not be lost on President Snow.

They had to build up a rebel base in the Capitol, get some sort of underground organized in the districts," he says. "Then they needed someone to set the whole thing in motion. They needed you." "They needed Peeta, too, but they seem to have forgotten that,

No. Shut up and eat your pears,

Food. Medicine. Gifts. They eagerly scoop them up, frozen fingers struggling with the strings. The hovercraft vanishes, five seconds pass, and then about twenty parachutes simultaneously explode.

the mirror that reflects my naked fire-mutt body.

Él siempre estaría en deuda con Lucy Gray. Ella tenía derecho a exigirle lo que quisiera.

May the odds be ever in your favor ~ Effie Trinket

While I've been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity.

And while I was talking, 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.

As if controlling one element of his world would keep him from ruin. It was a bad habit that blinded him to other things that could harm him.

The snow's red and littered with undersized body parts. Many of the children die immediately, but others lie in agony on the ground. Some stagger around mutely, staring at the remaining silver parachutes in their hands, as if they still might have something precious inside. I

The snow's red and littered with undersized body parts. Many of the children die immediately, but others lie in agony on the ground. Some stagger around mutely, staring at the remaining silver parachutes in their hands, as if they still might have something precious inside. I can tell the Peacekeepers didn't know this was coming by the way they are yanking away the barricades, making a path to the children.

The cease-fire's clearly President Snow's idea. But it seems so reasonable coming out of Peeta's mouth.

aren't they the very reason I have to try to fight? Because what has been done to them is so wrong, so beyond justification, so evil that there is no choice? Because no one has the right to treat them as they have been treated? Yes. This is the thing to remember when fear threatens to swallow me up. What I am about to do, whatever any of us are forced to endure, it is for them.

Another flock of white uniforms sweeps into the opening.

Small, bluish tubers that don't look like much but boiled or baked are as good as any potato. "Katniss," I said aloud. It's the plant I was named for. And I heard my father's voice joking, "As long as you can find yourself, you'll never starve.

From this place, we are invisible but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. The food's wonderful, with the cheese seeping into the warm bread and the berries bursting in our mouths.

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