Best Quotes from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins with Page Numbers

I can't fight the sun. I can only watch helplessly as it drags me into a day that I've been dreading for months.

There will be others waiting, too. A staff to cater to my every need on the long train trip.

But the Victory Tour makes that impossible.

The sun persists in rising, so I make myself stand.

There's no going back.

I thought they weren't due until noon.

I mourn my old life here.

It's comforting here with Hazelle.

You've got to go through it to get to the end of it.

It's just snow. Did you have a nice walk?

If he's made the journey all the way from his city, it can only mean one thing. I'm in serious trouble.

Any act of rebellion was purely coincidental.

But when the Capitol decrees that only one tribute can live and you have the audacity to challenge it, I guess that's a rebellion in itself.

I think my tongue has frozen and speech will be impossible.

You have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem.

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

I believe you. It doesn't matter.

Aim higher in case you fall short.

Convince me.

By the way, I know about the kiss.

"I reached my hands over the tray and quickly brush the bits of cookie from my palm and fingers. I take a shaky sip of my tea."

"How I will always have to protect her."

"Sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them."

"I realize Cinna's trying to put a coat on me, so I raise my arms."

"You're bringing earmuffs back in style."

"As badly as I have hurt him, he won't expose me in front of the cameras. Won't condemn me with a halfhearted kiss."

"I know I'm not alone."

"I have to talk to you."

"Then you can't fail."

"I'll have to marry Peeta."

You could do a lot worse, you know.

One of the few freedoms we have in District 12 is the right to marry who we want or not marry at all.

I can't let President Snow condemn me to this. Even if it means taking my own life.

I tell myself I am to try to keep the fears at bay.

It's better to wake up with a paintbrush than a knife in my hand.

All my friends are probably going to end up dead, but refusing Peeta wouldn't keep him safe.

But I feel as if I did know Rue, and she'll always be with me.

Thank you for your children.

It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison.

Sometimes, you have to stand up and defy what is seen as normal.

"So, after all we went through in the arena, don't I even rate the truth from you?"

"This has to stop. Right now. This — this—game you two play, where you tell each other secrets but keep them from me like I'm too inconsequential or stupid or weak to handle them."

"If we survive this, you'll learn."

"I didn't want to disrupt that."

"No point," says Peeta. We stand at the top of the stairs, giving Haymitch a fifteen-step lead as Effie directed.

"We'll make an effort to be more discreet, but we don't."

"It felt like a cry for vengeance rather than a cheer."

"A spark could be enough to set them ablaze."

"You're always so reliably good, Peeta, so smart about how you present yourself before the cameras."

"What do you think is going to happen to Rue's and Thresh's families? Do you think they'll get their share of our winnings?"

In that one slight motion, I see the end of hope, the beginning of the destruction of everything I hold dear in the world.

That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I am free to act as desperately as I wish.

How I will convince them, where we will go in the dead of winter, what it will take to evade capture are unanswered questions.

Instead of crumpling to the ground and weeping, I find myself standing up straighter and with more confidence than I have in weeks.

I want to taste everything in the room.

But often in the old days, there was nothing to give and the child was past saving, anyway.

Peeta, they bring us here to fight to the death for their entertainment.

Sometimes I can't stand it anymore. To the point where ... I'm not sure what I'll do.

One day when I dropped by to give Hazelle the game, Vick was home sick with a bad cough.

I want to point out that twenty-two dead tributes will never recover from the Games he helped create, either.

You haven't hurt people—you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it.

It can't be about just saving us anymore. Not if the rebellion's begun!

This could be it, the thing we've been—

I'm sure. I'm completely, entirely, one hundred percent sure.

I love you.

I know! And you... you know what you are to me.

We'll find out.

Don't you see? It can't be about just saving us anymore.

What if he decides to stay?

If there's an uprising in District Eight, why not here? Why not everywhere?

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

"Life in District 12 isn't really so different from life in the arena. At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead."

"Anything else is unthinkable."

"I’m so sorry," I whisper.

"The hatred I feel for him, for the phantom girl, for everything, is so real and immediate that it chokes me."

"No decent person ever does."

"What a pair we were—fatherless, frightened, but fiercely committed, too, to keeping our families alive."

"I think of a hundred moments in the woods, lazy afternoons fishing, the day I taught him to swim..."

"You saved Peeta, I think weakly."

"Because I'm selfish. I'm a coward."

I have chosen Gale and the rebellion, and a future with Peeta is the Capitol's design, not mine.

This blizzard is a gift.

It's too late to help Rue, but maybe not too late for those five little faces that looked up at me from the square in District 11.

What I am about to do, whatever any of us are forced to endure, it is for them.

If people have the courage, this could be an opportunity.

Deciding not to run away is a crucial first step.

A trip to buy something at the Hob would be too risky.

Things go from bad to worse. The number of kids signing up for tesserae soars.

Even the sight of Peeta and me is enough to make people pull their children away from the windows.

What an idiot I am. There's an inherent flaw in the plan that both Gale and I were too blind to see.

It means we're on your side.

We're headed for District Thirteen.

They're no better than the Capitol.

Right now, we're just holding on to the hope that they exist.

What if they're right? Could it be true?

We think the people moved underground when everything on the surface was destroyed.

I can't bring myself to tell her she's chasing a dream as insubstantial as a wisp of smoke.

I understand why you're running, but what do you expect to find in District Thirteen?

If I could accomplish something, instead of waiting here for my death?

What is it? What does that mean?

"Calm down, I order myself. It's not as if this is the first time I've been caught outside of the district by an electrified fence."

"What choice do I have? I could look for another branch, but it's almost dark now."

"A second later, my rear end slams the ground. I lie in the snow, trying to assess the damage."

"My mother and Prim can't know I was in the woods. I need to work up some sort of alibi, no matter how thin."

"They've been waiting for me to fail to return."

"I know she's hoping for game or wild plants. Something that clearly condemns me."

"You have a message for me?"

"I'm pushing things, I know it, but the comment gives me a sense of satisfaction."

"I told Gale I would stay and fight, anyway."

"You know, I think this is the first time we've ever done anything normal together."

But maybe at some point?

Maybe. But we're small, we're weak, and we don't develop nuclear weapons.

Well, you've heard what they did in Eight. You've seen what they did here, and that was without provocation.

So you think Thirteen was really destroyed?

Because you're desperate.

Spring would be a good time for an uprising.

It can't be, Prim. They only did the pictures yesterday.

Let's get Katniss Everdeen to her wedding in style!

As a reminder that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol.

I am going back into the arena.

"Victors are our strongest. They're the ones who survived the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that strangles the rest of us. They, or should I say we, are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope."

"This time we try to keep him alive."

"Two of us are going to be in the arena again with the other as mentor. We can't afford any drunkards on this team. Especially not you, Katniss."

"The point is that two of us are coming home from the Capitol. One mentor and one victor."

"I came for a drink."

"Not that I was particularly impressed with myself, mind you, but still I was the one who had survived the games. Maybe that meant something."

"We have to be strong."

"It'd be bad for you in the arena, wouldn't it? Knowing all the others?"

"You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know."

"Whatever Peeta wants, it's his turn to be saved. We both owe him that."

I will never reverse this journey again.

No, it's more than a mission. It's my dying wish.

Keep Peeta alive.

Let them go, I tell myself. Say good-bye and forget them.

They cannot be delivered with a wooden box containing my cold, stiff body.

I have said good-bye to Gale. I'll never see him again, that's for certain.

But there’s a great deal of strength in acknowledging our weaknesses.

The arena can't go on forever.

I bet that's why I don't remember seeing it on television.

I'm beginning to know who I am.

"Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself."

"When you're on the chariot this time, no waving, no smiling. I just want you to look straight ahead, as if the entire audience is beneath your notice."

"I think ... this is just what I needed to face the others."

"Now look at yourself."

"We do not seek the fans' favor, grace them with our smiles, or catch their kisses. We are unforgiving. And I love it. Getting to be myself at last."

"You see something sweet, you better grab it quick."

"I simply fix my eyes on a point far in the distance and pretend there is no audience, no hysteria."

"Your days of pink lipstick and ribbons are behind you."

"I know somehow it must be because of Rue and Thresh."

"I am not! I've been practically ripping your clothes off every time there's been a camera for the last year!"

"If Gale could see him ...I know any move I would make toward Darius, any act of recognition, would only result in punishment for him."

"In the tight, desperate clench of our fingers are all the words we will never be able to say."

"That isn't your job, Katniss!"

"It's amazing, really, that he ever took any notice of me except to think I was odd."

"Don't tell him I said so, but he usually is, where the Games are concerned."

"You've got to be wise in your choices, but trust can be a rare thing when survival's at stake."

"Maybe he’s right. Only who could I trust?"

"I volunteer to save others, just like I did for Prim."

"It turns out to be kind of fun. Much more like hunting a moving creature."

"I try to catch Plutarch Heavensbee's eye, but he seems to be intentionally ignoring me... Suddenly I know just what I'm going to do."

But even if that happens, everyone will know we've gone out fighting, right?

The Capitol will have killed me ... but not my spirit.

What better way to give hope to the rebels?

My private agenda dovetails completely with my public one.

It feels like such a luxury, sleeping with Peeta again.

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

I didn’t think you’d want to miss it.

We would all like you to know what a ... privilege it has been to make you look your best.

Well, it'd be a shame to waste such a pretty dress.

Because Cinna has turned me into a mockingjay.

I think you better take a bow!

Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself.

To us, we're more married than any piece of paper or big party could make us.

Maybe I'd think that, too, Caesar, if it weren't for the baby.

It's too late, though. In the confusion they didn't cut us off in time.

Somewhere, very far off, is a place called District 12, where my mother and sister and friends will have to deal with the fallout from this night.

You just remember who the enemy is.

I'm still betting on you.

This is no place for a girl on fire.

We victors staged our own uprising, and maybe, just maybe, the Capitol won't be able to contain this one.

My refusal to play the Games on the Capitol's terms is to be my last act of rebellion.

I must be strong. I owe it to Cinna, who risked everything by undermining President Snow.

Lucky thing we're allies. Right?

No one in this arena was a victor by chance.

Katniss has remarkably good judgment.

Better not exert yourself. Not in your condition.

We've got allies.

The belts. They're flotation devices.

Let's keep moving. We need water.

And no one in this arena was a victor by chance.

"Peeta!" I scream. I shake him harder, even resort to slapping his face, but it's no use. His heart has failed.

"Do you think you can move on?" "No, he has to rest."

"You were dead! Your heart stopped!" I burst out, before really considering if this is a good idea.

"It's okay. It's just her hormones," says Finnick. "From the baby."

"How are you?" he asks Peeta. "Do you think you can move on?"

"With no water. No protection. I feel all right, really. If we could just go slowly."

"I don’t hear anything," says Peeta. "Yes," I insist, "it's like when the fence around District Twelve is on, only much, much quieter."

"The force field has us trapped in a circle. A dome, really. I don’t know how high it goes."

"It's a spile. Sort of like a faucet. You put it in a tree and sap comes out."

"Well, the right sort of tree." "To make syrup," says Peeta. "But there must be something else inside these trees."

This time my survival isn't the goal. Peeta's is.

I lock my fingers tightly into his and say, 'Watch my feet. Just try to step where I step.'

It's no good. I'll have to carry him. Can you take Mags?

No, I can't carry them both.

What happens next is so fast, so senseless, I can't even move to stop it.

Time and space lose meaning as the fog seems to invade my brain, muddling my thoughts.

Some deep-rooted animal desire for survival keeps me stumbling after Finnick and Peeta.

I seem to have no ability to stop my own forward motion and simply propel myself onward.

I can see the wall of fog, which has taken on a pearly white quality.

We've got to get more of him into the water.

"With my paint box at home, I can make every color imaginable."

"I spent three days mixing paint until I found the right shade for sunlight on white fur."

"I haven't figured out a rainbow yet. They come so quickly and leave so soon."

"Thank you, that looks beautiful."

"It's good. You're good with this healing stuff. It's in your blood."

"We can’t really leave Finnick."

"I hope so."

"I’m going to see about Wiress."

"Tick, tock. This is a clock."

"How yesterday morning, Finnick was on my kill list, and now I’m willing to sleep with him as my guard."

"Get up, we have to move."

"Yes, tick, tock, the arena's a clock."

"You were right, Wiress."

"It's the best weapon he could have."

"That has to be our first priority — getting Wiress's wire back."

"She's more than smart. She's intuitive."

"I just keep swimming as hard as I can."

"Let's get off this stinking island."

"What has Haymitch possibly said to them, what has he bargained with to make them put Peeta's life above their own?"

"I run wildly in the direction of the voice, heedless of danger."

"Katniss, Prim isn't dead. How could they kill Prim?"

"It's just a jabberjay. They're playing a trick on us."

"What happens? At the final eight?"

"The same way I wondered if Glimmer's eyes were in that mutt last year. But those weren't Glimmer's eyes. And that wasn't Prim's voice."

"It was a trick, Katniss. A horrible one. But we're the only ones who can be hurt by it."

"Your family needs you, Katniss."

"I do," I say. "I need you."

"It could be true. I don't know."

"We can assume he was lying to one of us."

"That's how we know Prim's alive. She'll be the first one they interview, won't she?"

Happiness, of course, is a complete absurdity at this point, since at the rate things are going, I'll be dead in a day.

I cling to it, if only for a few moments.

But I can't protect Beetee, too. There can only be one victor and it has to be Peeta.

I must accept this. I must make decisions based on his survival only.

If it fails, there's no harm done. If it works, there's a decent chance we'll kill them.

Yes, I will keep it. For the few remaining hours of my life I will keep it close.

Perhaps it will give me strength in the final moments.

The laughter drains from those eyes, and they are staring so intensely into mine, it's like they can read my thoughts.

But not the way I wanted it to.

The time for persuasive gifts is over.

"There's a much deeper alliance based on years of friendship and who knows what else."

"It's okay, I'll see you at midnight."

"I only know that I must get back to Peeta and keep him alive."

"Yes, I will draw them in, any in my vicinity..."

"You just remember who the enemy is."

"My bow drops as his meaning registers."

"I finally see Beetee's knife with clear eyes."

"I let the arrow fly, see it hit its mark and vanish..."

"A flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light."

"I can't reach Peeta. I can't even reach my pearl."

... a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol...

While you live, the revolution lives.

See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.

I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans.

And we couldn't risk leaving you unprotected.

They have not spared my life to crown me victor but to make my death as slow and public as possible.

It would be best.

It's enough to die of spite.

But Gale is not one to keep secrets from me.

Katniss, there is no District Twelve.