Quotes From "Catching Fire" By Suzanne Collins

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

But I have to confess, I'm glad you two had at least a few months of happiness together." I'm not glad, " says Peeta. "I wish we had waited until the whole thing was done officially." This takes even Caesar aback. "Surely even a brief time is better than no time?" Maybe I'd think that, too, Caesar, " says Peeta bitterly, "If it weren't for the baby. Suzanne Collins

I'm going to wake Peeta, " I say." No, wait, " says Finnick. "Let's do it together. Put our faces right in front of his." Well, there's so little opportunity for fun left in my life, I agree. We position ourselves on either side of Peeta, lean over until our faces are inches frim his nose, and give him a shake. "Peeta. Peeta, wake up, " I say in a soft, singsong voice. His eyelids flutter open and then he jumps like we've stabbed him. "Aa! "Finnick and I fall back in the sand, laughing our heads off. Every time we try to stop, we look at Peeta's attempt to maintain a disdainful expression and it sets us off again. Suzanne Collins

The idea of being strong for someone else having never entered their heads, I find myself in the position of having to console them. Since I'm the person going in to be slaughtered, this is somewhat annoying. Suzanne Collins

I thought he wanted it, anyway, " I say. "Not like this, " Haymitch says. "He wanted it to be real. Suzanne Collins

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

Either you came in here a swimmer or you'd better be a really fast learner Suzanne Collins

The beauty of this idea is that my decision to keep Peeta alive at the expense of my own life is itself an act of defiance. A refusal to play the Hunger Games by the Capitol's rules. My private agenda dovetails completely with my public one. And if I really could save Peeta.. in terms of a revolution, this would be ideal. Because I will be more valuable dead. They can turn me into some kind of martyr for the cause and paint my face on banners, and it will do more to rally people than anything I could do if I was living. But Peeta would be more valuable alive, and tragic, because he will be able to turn his pain into words that will transform people. Suzanne Collins

I'm ordered to a week of bed rest and I don't object because I feel so lousy. Not just my heel and my tailbone. My whole body aches with exhaustion. So I let my mother doctor me and feed me breakfast in bed and tuck another quilt around me. Then I just lie there, staring out my window at the winter sky, pondering how on earth this will all turn out. Suzanne Collins

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. Suzanne Collins

I'm not prepared for Rue's 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. Suzanne Collins

Prim... Rue... 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 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. Suzanne Collins

But it's 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 don't catch it. Suzanne Collins

They're a little strange, but I'm pretty sure neither of them is going to try to make me uncomfortable by stripping naked. 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

In my mind, President Snow should be viewed in front of marble pillars hung with oversized flags. It's jarring to see him surrounded by the ordinary objects in the room. Like taking the lid off a pot and finding a fanged viper instead of stew. Suzanne Collins

Peeta" I said "Stay with me" I heard him say one word before the drigs pulled me under, I realised later that what he said was 'always Suzanne Collins

I act delighted, but I have zero interest in these Capitol people. They are only distractions from the food. Suzanne Collins

We are what no one wants to miss at the party. I act delighted, but I have zero interest in these Capitol people. They are only distractions from the food. Suzanne Collins

I look coolly in to the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan. Suzanne Collins

My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here. Suzanne Collins

And it’s all my fault, Gale. Because of what I did in the arena. If I had just killed myself with those berries, none of this would’ve happened. Peeta could have come home and lived, and everyone else would have been safe, too.”“ 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. They just have to be brave enough to take it. Suzanne Collins

He could have had his choice of any woman in the district. And he chose solitude. Not solitude — that sounds too peaceful. More like solitary confinement. Suzanne Collins

I had to do that. At least once. Suzanne Collins

I don't know what it is with Finnick and bread, but he seems obsessed with handling it. Suzanne Collins

I go back to my room and lie under the covers, trying not to think of Gale and thinking of nothing else. Suzanne Collins

And then it happens. Up and down the row, the victors begin to join hands. Some right away, like the morphlings, or Wiress and Beetee. Others unsure but caught up in the demands of those around them, like Brutus and Enobaria. By the time the anthem plays its final strains, all twenty-four of us stand in one unbroken line in what must be the first public show of unity among the districts since the Dark Days. You can see the realization of this as the screens begin to pop into blackness. It's too late, though. In the confusion they didn't cut us off in time. Everyone has seen. 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

You'd have thought we planned it, " says Peeta, giving me just the hint of a smile." Didn't you?" asks Portia. Her fingers press her eyelids closed as if she's warding off a very bright light." No, " I say looking at Peeta with a new sense of apreciation. "Neither of us even knew what we were going to do before we went in."" And Haymitch?" says Peeta. "We decided we don't want any other allies in the arena."" Good. Then I won't be responsible for you killing off any of my friends with your stupidity, " he says. Suzanne Collins

Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable. Why did it take him being whipped within an inch of his life to see it? Suzanne Collins

Because I can count on my fingers the number of sunsets I have left, and I don't want to miss any of them. Suzanne Collins

Looking at Prim's face, it's hard to imagine she's the same frail little girl I left behind on reapimg day nine months ago. The combination of that ordeal and all that has followed - the cruelty in the district, the parade of sick and wounded that she often treates herself now if my mother's hands are too full - these things have aged her years. She's grown quite a bit, too; we're practically the same height now, but that isn't what makes her seem so much older. Suzanne Collins

And then it hits me. They already have. They have kiled her father in those wretched mines. They have sat by as she almost starved to death. They have chosen her as a tribute, then made her watch her sister fight to the death in the Games. She has been hurt far worse than I had at the age of twelve. And even that pales in comparison with Rue's life. Suzanne Collins