Suzanne Collins famous quotes

It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Life #Fall #I Hate You

I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forever.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Forever #Wish #Moments

If you had hope, maybe you could find a way to make things change,. Because if you thought about it, there were so many reasons to try.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Trying #Way #Things Change

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

#Inspirational #Easier #Destroying

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.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Love #Spring #Inspiration

But because two can play at this game, I stand on tiptoe and kiss his cheek. Right on his bruise.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Kissing #Play #Two

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

#Relationship #Missing You #Hate

Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that bother you in contemporary times.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Giving #Stories #World

I clench his hands to the point of pain. "Stay with me." His pupils contract to pinpoints, dialate again rapidly, and then return to something resembling normalcy. "Always," he murmurs.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Pain #Hands #Normalcy

So it's you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Plans #Haymitch

Even if times got bad, he would never again deny himself the possibility that the future might be happy even if the present was painful. He would allow himself dreams.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Dream #Might #Painful

Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars, the broken planet. Clearly, they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them.
-- Suzanne Collins

#War #Mean #Broken

I realize, for the first time, how very lonely I've been in the arena. How comforting the presence of another human being can be.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Lonely #Comforting #Firsts

Peeta, how come I never know when you're having a nightmare?” I say. “I don't know. I don't think I cry out or thrash around or anything. I just come to, paralyzed with terror,” he says. “You should wake me,” I say, thinking about how I can interrupt his sleep two or three times on a bad night. About how long it can take to calm me down. “It's not necessary. My nightmares are usually about losing you,” he says. “I'm okay once I realize you're here.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Sleep #Night #Thinking

Your only defense can be you were so madly in love you weren't responsible for your actions.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Love You #Defense #Action

Want a sugar cube?" he asks in his old seductive voice.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Voice #Seductive #Sugar

I'm sure they didn't notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often," he says. "They suit you.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Flames #Suits #Should

If you hit bottom, there's a whole lot of people here to help you up
-- Suzanne Collins

#People #Helping #Bottom

I guess this is a bad time to mention I hung a dummy and painted Seneca Crane's name on it...
-- Suzanne Collins

#Names #Bad Times #Cranes

You know, you could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve him.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Lifetime #Thousand #Deserve

I think....you still have no idea. The effect you can have.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Thinking #Ideas #Awareness

The cat that Prim got hates me, I think partly because I tried to drown it.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Hate #Cat #Thinking

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

#Mother #Born #Made

I'm so sorry," I whisper. I lean forward and kiss him. His eyelashes flutter and he looks at me through a haze of opiates. "Hey, Catnip." "Hey, Gale," I say. "Thought you'd be gone by now," He says. My choices are simple. I can die like a quarry in the woods or I can die here beside Gale. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay right here and cause all kinds of trouble." "Me, too," Gale says. He just manages a smile before the drugs pull him back under.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Sorry #Kissing #Simple

They're already taking my future! They can't have the things that mattered to me in the past!
-- Suzanne Collins

#Past #My Future

Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Humor #Kissing #Kiss Me

Each time I wake,I think, At last, this is over, but it isn't.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Thinking #Lasts

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

#Love #Sweet #Giving

Kind people have a way of working their way inside me and rooting there.
-- Suzanne Collins

#People #Way #Kind

One more time? For the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me. I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Letting Go #Boys #Hands

You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real," he whispers. "Real," I answer. "Because that's what you and I do, protect each other.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Real #Trying #Answers

We could do it, you know." "What?" "Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Running #Woods #Young Adult

I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in things because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. But there are much worse games to play.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Morning #Taken #Years

Well, I knew that goat would be a little gold mine," I say. Yes, of course I was referring to that, not the lasting joy you gave your sister you love so much you took her place in the reaping," says Peeta drily.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Joy #Gold #Goats

And there I am, blushing and confused, made beautiful by Cinna’s hands, desirable by Peeta’s confession, tragic by circumstance, and by all accounts, unforgettable.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Beautiful #Confused #Hands

It crosses my mind that Cinna's calm and normal demeanor masks a complete madman.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mind #Normal #Calm

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

#Voice #Share #Trusted

Stupid people are dangerous.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Stupid #Stupid People #People

You have a... remarkable memory." "I remember everything about you. You're the one who wasn't paying attention.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Love #Memories #Attention

This is the first kiss that we're both fully aware of. Neither of us hobbled by sickness or pain or simply unconscious. Our lips neither burning with fever or icy cold. This is the first kiss where I actually feel stirring inside my chest. Warm and curious. This is the first kiss that makes me want another.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Pain #Kissing #Burning

‎I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay right here and cause all kinds of trouble.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Causes #Kind #Trouble

Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Stronger #Littles #Hunger

It sends out a very clear message: "Mess with us and we'll do something worse than kill you. We'll kill your children.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Children #Messages #Clear

Fine. Somebody else can arrange to get the stupid goat knocked up.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Stupid #Knocked Up #Goats

Aim higher in case you fall short.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Inspirational #Fall #Cases

So that day, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the valley song. Your hand shot right up in the air. She stood you up on a stool and had you sing it for us. And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent...and right when your song ended, I knew - just like your mother - I was a goner.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mother #Song #Teacher

I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Realizing #Persons #Peeta

You’re not leaving me here alone,” I say. Because if he dies, I’ll never go home, not really. I’ll spend the rest of my life in this arena, trying to think my way out.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Home #Thinking #Leaving

Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children's lives to settle its differences. You can spin it any way you like... But in the end, who does it benefit? No one. The truth is, it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen
-- Suzanne Collins

#Children #Sacrifice #Differences

They'll either want to kill you, kiss you, or be you.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Kissing #Envy #Want

We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss," says Plutarch. "While you live, the revolution lives.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Katniss #Revolution #Mockingjay

Well, don't expect us to be too impressed. We just saw Finnick Odair in his underwear.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Funny #Witty #Saws

Sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.
-- Suzanne Collins

#People #Sometimes #Deals

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

#Pain #Worst

We have to joke about it because the alternative is to be scared
-- Suzanne Collins

#Alternatives #Scared #Jokes

I always channel my emotions into my work. That way, I don't hurt anyone but myself.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Hurt #Way #Emotion

And to us, we're more married than any piece of paper or big party could make us.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Party #Pieces #Paper

Because when he sings...even the birds stop to listen.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Music #Bird

I stand there, feeling broken and small, thousands of eyes trained on me.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Eye #Broken #Feelings

I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part of every tribute they can't own. That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Games #Want #Rue

For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Relationship #Betrayal #Firsts

Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel. "You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know," Haymitch says.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Strong #Catching Fire #Shame

It's weird, how much he's noticed me... And apparently, I have not been as oblivious to him as I imagined, either.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Oblivious

So what I'd really like is to try and conceal him somewhere safe, then go hunt, and come back and collect him. But I have a feeling his ego isn't going to go for that suggestion.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Feelings #Ego #Trying

It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Lovely #Frost

We could do it, you know.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Gale Hawthorne

You and me Haymitch.Very cozy.Picnics, birthdays, long winter nights sitting around the fire retelling old Hunger Games tale. -Peeta Mellark
-- Suzanne Collins

#Winter #Night #Games

Since my father died and I stopped trusting my mother, no one else's arms have made me feel this safe.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mother #Father #Safe

Let me go!” I snarl at him, trying to wrest my arm from his grasp. “I can’t,” he says.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Trying #Arms #Let Me Go

Tomorrow's a hunting day," I say. "I won't be much of a help with that," Peeta says. "I've never hunted before." "I'll kill and you cook," I say. "And you can always gather." "I wish there was some sort of bread bush out there," says Peeta.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Hunting #Wish #Bread

The air's warm with hopeful hints of spring in it. Spring would be a good time for an uprising, I think. Everyone feels less vulnerable once winter passes.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Spring #Winter #Thinking

And it takes so much energy to stay angry with someone who cries so much.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Energy #Cry #Angry

I try to forgive her for my father's sake. But to be honest, I'm not the forgiving type.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Father #Forgiving #Trying

The morphlings from District 6 are in the camouflage station, painting each other's faces with bright pink swirls.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Camouflage #Faces #Painting

Once I'm on my feet i realize escape might not be so simple, panic begins to set in. i can't stay here. flight is essential but i can't let my fear show. Winning means fame and fortune, losing mean certain death, The Hunger Games have begun . . .
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mean #Winning #Simple

I mean I know it's cold out here and not everybody has a sleeping bag. But when you grit your teeth and stick it out until dawn!
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mean #Sleep #Bags

I curl up, make myself smaller, try to disappear entirely. Wrapped in silence, I slide my bracelet that reads 'mentally disoriented' around and around my wrist.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Silence #Trying #Slides

The arenas are historic sites, preserved after the Games. Popular destinations for Capitol residents to visit, to vacation. Go for a month, rewatch the Games, tour the catacombs, visit the sites where the deaths took place. You can even take part in reenactments. They say the food is excellent
-- Suzanne Collins

#Vacation #Games #Months

I volunteer!" I gasp. "I volunteer as tribute!
-- Suzanne Collins

#Volunteer #Tribute

A hysterical young woman with flowing brown hair is also called from 4, but she's quickly replaced by a volunteer, an eighty-year-old woman who needs a cane to walk to the stage.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Years #Hair #Volunteer

You're hideous, you know that, right?
-- Suzanne Collins

#Catching Fire

maybe it's that we are all so starved for something good to happen that we want to be a part of it.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Want

Listen up. You're in trouble. Word is the Capitol's furious about you showing them up in the arena. The one thing they can't stand is being laughed at and they're the joke of Panem
-- Suzanne Collins

#Arena #Hunger #Trouble

Peeta looks at the glass again and puts it together. "You mean this will make me puke?" My prep team laughs hysterically. "Of course, so you can keep eating," says Octavia. "I've been in there twice already. Everyone does it, or else how would you have any fun at a feast?
-- Suzanne Collins

#Fun #Team #Mean

Not exactly. You see, Portia and I think that the coal miner thing's very overdone. No one will remember you in that. And we both see it has our job to make District 12 tributes unforgettable,' says Cinna. I'll be naked for sure, I think. 'So rather than focus on the coal mining itself, we're going to focus on the coal,' says Cinna. Naked and covered in black dust, i think. 'And what do we do with coal? We burn it,' says Cinna. 'You're not afraid of fire, are you, Katniss?' He sees my expression and grins.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Jobs #Thinking #Dust

No one really needs me," he says, and there is no self-pity in his voice. It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me. "I do," I say. "I need you.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Self #Voice #White

My mockingjay pin now lives with Cinna's outfit, but there's the gold locket and the silver parachute with the spile and Peeta's pearl. I knot the pearl into the corner of the parachute, bury it deep in the recesses of the bag, as if it's Peeta's life and no one can take it away as long as I guard it.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Long #Gold #Bags

For a second, I'm afraid he's dying. I have to remind myself that I don't care.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Dying #Care

My mother just wanted me to forget it. So, of course, every word was immediately, irrevocably branded into my brain.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mother #Brain #Forget

Because...because...she came here with me.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Hunger #Peeta

I'm running on hate. When the energy from that ebbs I'll be worthless.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Running #Hate #Energy

No, you won her over. Gave up everything for her. Maybe that's the only way to convince her you love her.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Way #Gave Up #Convince

I know we promised Haymitch, we'd do exactly what they said, but I don't think he considered this angle.' 'Where is Haymitch, anyway? Isn't he supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?' says Peeta. 'With all that alcohol in him, it's probably not advisable to have him around an open flame,' I say.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Thinking #Flames #Alcohol

They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Hurt #Hurt Me

I must still look perplexed because Gale delivers the next line very slowly. “Katniss…he’s still trying to keep you alive.” To keep me alive? And then I understand. The Games are still on.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Games #Katniss #Trying

Positioned on my dresser, that white-as-snow rose is a personal message to me. It speaks of unfinished business. It whispers, I can find you. I can reach you. Perhaps I am watching you now.
-- Suzanne Collins

#White #Rose #Snow

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. He kisses me one last time and goes back to Finnick.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Mother #Baby #Kissing

Tick, tock,” whispers Wiress. I guide her in front of me and get her to lie down, stroking her arm to soothe her. She drifts off, stirring restlessly, occasionally sighing out her phrase. “Tick, tock.” “Tick, tock,” I agree softly. “It’s time for bed. Tick, tock. Go to sleep.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Lying #Sleep #Phrases

Johanna glances over at Finnick, to be sure, then turns to me. “How’d you lose Mags?” “In the fog. Finnick had Peeta. I had Mags for a while. Then I couldn’t lift her. Finnick said he couldn’t take them both. She kissed him and walked right into the poison,” I say. “She was Finnick’s mentor, you know,” Johanna says accusingly. “No, I didn’t,” I say. “She was half his family,” she says a few moments later, but there’s less venom behind it.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Fog #Mentor #Half

Peeta crouches down on the other side of her and strokes her hair. When he begins to speak in a soft voice, it seems almost nonsensical, but the words aren’t for me. “With my paint box at home, I can make every color imaginable. Pink. As pale as a baby’s skin. Or as deep as rhubarb. Green like spring grass. Blue that shimmers like ice on water.
-- Suzanne Collins

#Baby #Spring #Home