"And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anyway. I just hope I get one who doesn't think nudity is the last word in fashion."

"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."

"Yeah, about that, says Peeta, entwining his fingers in mine. "Don't try something like that again. "Or what? I ask. "Or . . . or . . . He can't think of anything good. "Just give me a minute."

"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."

"Star-crossed lovers desperate to get home together. Two hearts beating as one. Romance."

"I find myself focusing up at the sky - the only roof left - because too many memories are drowning me."

"Not daring to flee since my general location has just been broadcast to any killer who cares. I mean, I know it's cold out here and not everybody has a sleeping bag."

"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."

"She's dead, you stupid cat. She's dead."

"Isn't it strange that I know you'd risk your life to save mine, but I don't even know what your favorite color is?"

"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."

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

"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."

"What have the nibblers ever done for you?"The breeze ruffled her hair, pushing it back from her face, giving him a clear shot of her eyes. They were asking for an answer. Needing to know if she could count on him."They saved your life," he said.And for just a moment, Luxa's face softened and she smiled."

"Beware, Underlanders, time hangs by a thread.The hunters are hunted, white water runs red.The Gnawers will strike to extinguish the rest.The hope of the hopeless resides in a quest.An Overland warrior, a son of the sun,May bring us back light, he may bring us back none.But gather your neighbors and follow his callOr rats will most surely devour us all.Two over, two under, of royal descent,Two flyers, two crawlers, two spinners assent.One gnawer beside and one lost up ahead.And eight will be left when we count up the dead.The last who will die must decide where he stands.The fate of the eight is contained in his hands.So bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps,As life may be death and death life again reaps."

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

"In theory, sure, Gregor could still go home. Pack up his three-year-old sister, Boots, get his mom out of the hospital, where she was recovering from the plague, and have his bat, Ares, fly them back up to the laudry room of their appartment building in New York City. Ares, his bond, who saved his life numerous times and who had had nothing but suffering since he had met Gregor. He tried to imagine the parting. "Well, Ares, it's been great. I'm heading home now. I know by leaving I'm completely dooming to annihilation everbody who's helped me down here, but I'm really not up for this whole war thing anymore. So, fly you high, you know?" Like that would ever happen."

"And if we burn, you burn with us."

"It's a saying from thousands of years ago, written in a language called Latin about a place called Rome, he explains. "Panem et Circenses translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power."

"Either you came in here a swimmer or you'd better be a really fast learner."

"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."

"But more words tumble out. 'You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.'Then I dive into my tent before I do something stupid like cry."

"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."

"Aim higher in case you fall short."

"Sorry excuses for hunters and friends. Both of us."

"You can swim, too." he says. "Where did you learn that in District Twelve?""We have a very big bathtub."

"His dad said even the cavemen had geniuses among them. Somebody had thought up the wheel."

"No. Now, shut up and eat your pears."

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

"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."

"I can feel Peeta press his forehead into my temple and he asks, 'So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?' I turn into him. 'Put you somewhere you can't get hurt."

"It's to the Capitol's advantage to have us divided among ourselves.Another tool to cause misery in our district. A way to plant hatred between the starving workers [of the Seam] and those who can generally count on supper and thereby ensure we will never trust one another."

"Prim, let go," I say harshly, because this is upsetting me and I don't want to cry. When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I'll be marked as an easy target. A weakling. I will give no one that satisfaction."

"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?"

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

"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."

"I'm not flailing now, as my muscles are rigid with the tension of holding myself together. The pain over my heart returns, and from it I imagine tiny fissures spreading out into my body. Through my torso, down my arms and legs, over my face, leaving it crisscrossed with cracks. One good jolt and I could shatter into strange, razor-sharp shards."

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

"I think we put our children at an enormous disadvantage by not educating them in war, by not letting them understand about it at an early age."

"I just don't want them to change me, if I'm going to die I still want to be me."

"They play in the Meadow. The dancing girl with the dark hair and blue eyes. The boy with blond curls and gray eyes, struggling to keep up with her on his chubby toddler legs. It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly. When I first felt her stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself. Only the joy of holding her in my arms could tame it."

"Knowing it and seeing it are two different things."

"How much energy they put into harming each other. How little into saving."

"How are you managing? And don't say you're fine."It's true. Whatever the opposite of fine is, that's what I am."

"How about you, Mockingjay? You feel totally safe? "Oh, yeah. Right up until I got shot, I say."

"That should have been my strategy! By the time I've worked through the emotions of surprise, admiration, anger, jealousy, and frustration, I'm watching that reddish mane of hair disappear into the trees well out of shooting range."

"As coal pressured into pearls by our weighty existence. Beauty that arose out of pain."

"Finnick and I sit for a long time in silence, watching the knots bloom and vanish, before I can ask, 'How do you bear it?'Finnick looks at me in disbelief. 'I don't, Katniss! Obviously, I don't. I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there's no relief in waking.'Something in my expression stops him.'Better not give in to it. It takes ten times as long to put yourself together as it does to fall apart.'Well, he must know. I take a deep breath, forcing myself back into one piece."

"Funny, though, I don't feel too bad."

"I search his eyes for the slightest sign of anything, fear, remorse, anger. But there's only the same look of amusement that ended our last conversation. It's as if he's speaking the words again. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other."He's right. We did.The point of my arrow shifts upward. I release the string. And President Coin collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead."