Quotes by Suzanne Collins

the evil thing is inside, not out.

Since I’ve been home I’ve been trying hard to mend my relationship with my mother. Asking her to do things for me instead of brushing aside any offer of help, as I did for years out of anger. Letting her handle all the money I won. Returning her hugs instead of tolerating them. My time in the arena made me realize how I needed to stop punishing her for something she couldn’t help, specifically the crushing depression she fell into after my father’s death. Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.

The numbness of his loss had passed, and the pain would hit me out of nowhere, doubling me over, racking my body with sobs. Where are you? I would cry out in my mind. Where have you gone? Of course, there was never any answer.

Anyone? On Snows visit before the Victory Tour, he challenged me to erase any doubts of my love for Peeta. Convince me, Snow said. It seems, under that hot pink sky with Peetas life in limbo, I finally did. And In doing so, I gave him the weapon he needed to break me.

The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.

Haymitch isnt thinking of arenas, but something else. Johannas back in the hospital.I assumed Johanna was fine, had passed her exam, but simply wasnt assigned to a sharp shooters unit. Shes wicked with a throwing axe but about average with a gun. Is she hurt? What happened?It was while she was on the Block. They try to ferret out a soldiers potential weakness. So they flooded the street, says Haymitch.This doesnt help. Johanna can swim. At least, I seem to remember her swimming around some in the Quarter Quell. Not like Finnick, of course, but none of us are like Finnick. So?Thats how they tortured her in the Capitol. Soaked her then used electric shocks, says Haymitch. In the Block, she had some kind of flashback. Panicked, didnt know where she was. Shes back under sedation. Finnick and I just stand there as if weve lost the ability to respond.I think of the way Johanna never showers. How she forced herself into the rain like it was acid that day. I had attributed her misery to morphling withdrawal. You two should go see her. Youre as close to friends as shes got, says Haymitch.That makes the whole thing worse. I dont really know whats between Johanna and Finnick, but I hardly know her. No family. No friends.Not so much as a token from District 7 to set beside her regulation clothes in her anonymous drawer.Nothing.

Im not prepared for Rues family. Her parents, whose faces are still fresh with sorrow. Her fiver younger siblings, who resemble her so closely. The slight builds, the luminous brown eyes. They form a flock of small dark birds.

Shes dead, you stupid cat. Shes dead.

Sorry excuses for hunters and friends. Both of us.

Prim... Rue... arent 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 had the right to treat them as they have been treated? Yes. This is the thing to remember when fear threatens to swallow me up.

The last thing I remember ia an exquisitely beautiful green and silver moth landing on the curve of my wrist. The sound of rain on the roof of our house gently pulls me toward consciousness. I fight to return to sleep though, wrapped in a warm cocoon of blankets, safe at home. Im vaguely aware that my head aches. Possibly I have the flu and this is why Im allowed to stay in bed, even though I can tell Ive been asleep a long time. My mothers hand strokes my cheek and I dont push is away as I would in wakefulness, never wanting her to know how much I crave that gentle touch. How much I miss her even though I still dont trust her. Then theres a voice, the wrong voice, not my mothers and im scared.

What do we do know?(Peeta)I guess we try to forget...(Katniss)I dont want to forget.(Peeta)

Katniss Everdeen, you have caused a spark, wich left unattended, may cause a spark that could cause a whole rebelion

Katniss. I remember about the bread.

But for better or worse, I am not motivated by kindness.

I realize, for the first time, how very lonely Ive been in the arena. How comforting the presence of another human being can be.

My sleep wasnt peaceful, though. I have the sense of emerging from a world of dark, haunted places where I traveled alone.

My spirit. This is a new thought. Im not sure exactly what it means, but it suggests Im a fighter. In a sort of brave way. Its not as if Im never friendly. Okay, maybe I dont go around loving everybody I meet, maybe my smiles are hard to come by, but i do care for some people.

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

but its not safe and I can feel him slipping away, so I just get out one more sentence. Stay with me. As the tendrils of sleep syrup pull me down, I hear him whisper a word back but I dont catch it.