‘The Hunger Games’ by author Suzanne Collins began as an immensely popular trilogy and has since spawned several prequels, as well as a legacy—and who can be surprised? While this is a young adult series, each book covers a variety of relevant, mature themes, including what it means to rebel against an authoritarian regime that cares little for individual citizens—and how the road to freedom might look nothing like what we’d like to believe.

These quotes are about love, destruction, grief, rebellion, and most importantly, hope.

The Hunger Games (2008)

1.

You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.

2.

“Lean down a minute first,” he says. “Need to tell you something.” I lean over and put my good ear to his lips, which tickle as he whispers. “Remember, we’re madly in love, so it’s all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.”

3.

I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.

4.

Destroying things is much easier than making them.

5.

Peeta sighs. “Well, there is one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t know I was alive until the reaping.”

Sounds of sympathy from the crowd. Unrequited love they can relate to.

“She have another fellow?” asks Caesar.

“I don’t know, but a lot of boys like her,” says Peeta.

“So, here’s what you do. You win, you go home. She can’t turn you down then, eh?” says Caesar encouragingly.

“I don’t think it’s going to work out. Winning…. Won’t help in my case,” says Peeta.

“Why ever not?” says Caesar, mystified.

Peeta plushes beet red and stammers out, “Because… because… she came here with me.”

6.

“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.”

7.

“You here to finish me off, sweetheart?”

8.

“Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying.”

9.

“May the odds be ever in your favor!”

10.

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

11.

For there to be betrayal, there would have had to have been trust first.

12.

“Here’s some advice. Stay alive,” says Haymitch, then bursts out laughing.

13.

“Yes, and I’m sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people.”

14.

“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.

15.

And while I was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die. And it’s not about the sponsors. And it’s not about what will happen when we get home. And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread.

16.

“I remember everything about you,” says Peeta, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “You’re the one who wasn’t paying attention.”

17.

They’re already taking my future! They can’t have the things that mattered to me in the past!

18.

“It’s lovely. If only you could frost someone to death,” I say.

“Don’t be so superior. You can never tell what you’ll find in the arena. Say it’s actually a gigantic cake—“ begins Peeta.

19.

“I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?” He asks. I shake my head. How could he die as anyone but himself. “I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.”

20.

Peeta rolls his eyes at Haymitch. “She has no idea. The effect she can have.” He runs his fingernail along the grain in the table, refusing to look at me.

21.

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.

22.

Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.

23.

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.

Catching Fire (2009)

24.

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

Usually that sort of comment, the kind that hints his undying love for me, makes me feel guilty and awful. But I’m so relaxed and beyond worrying about a future I’ll never have, I just let the word slip out.

“Okay,” I say.

I can hear the smile in his voice. “Then you’ll allow it?”

“I’ll allow it.”

25.

“You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know,” Haymitch says.

26.

I look at Peeta and he gives a sad smile. I hear Haymitch’s voice. “You could do a lot worse.” At this moment, it’s impossible to imagine I could do any better.

27.

“Isn’t it strange that I know you’d risk you life to save mine… but I don’t know what your favorite color is?”

28.

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?

29.

At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead.

30.

“Stay with me.” As the tendrils of sleep syrup pull me down, I hear him whisper a word back, but I don’t quite catch it.

31.

“Having an eye for beauty isn’t the same as weakness,” Peeta points out. “Except possibly when it comes to you.”

32.

“So it’s you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make plans.”

33.

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

34.

“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 necessarily. My nightmares are usually about losing you,” he says. “I’m okay once I realize you’re here.”

35.

“Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven’t looked pretty?” I say.

“It must be. The sensation’s completely new. How have you managed it all these years?” He asks.

“Just avoid mirrors. You’ll forget about it,” I say.

“Not if I keep looking at you,” he says.

36.

The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol’s plans. The symbol of rebellion.

37.

“I don’t want you forgetting how different our circumstances are. If you die, and I live, there’s no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You’re my whole life,” he says. “I would never be happy again.”

38.

So I only say, “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,” Peeta replies.

39.

I really can’t think about kissing when I’ve got a rebellion to incite.

40.

“Remember, girl on fire,” he says. “I’m still betting on you.”

41.

“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.”

42.

“But I feel as if I did know Rue, and she’ll always be with me. Everything beautiful brings her to mind. I see her in the yellow flowers that grow in the Meadow by my house. I see her in the Mockingjays that sing in the trees. But most of all, I see her in my sister, Prim.:

43.

What is the worst pain? To me, it’s always the pain that is present.

44.

“I thought he wanted it, anyway,” I say.

“Not like this,” Haymitch says. “He wanted it to be real.”

45.

“Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem,” he says.

Mockingjay (2010)

46.

“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.”

47.

“Finnick?” I say. “Maybe some pants?”

He looks down at his legs as if noticing his outfit for the first time. Then he whips off his hospital gown, leaving him just in his underwear. “Why? Do you find this”—he strikes a ridiculously provocative pose—“distracting?”

48.

At a few minute before four, Peeta turns to me again. “Your favorite color… it’s green?”

“That’s right.” Then I think of something to add. “And yours is orange.”

“Orange?” He seems unconvinced.

“Not bright orange. But soft. Like the sunset,” I say. “At least, that’s what you talk me once.”

“Oh.” He closes his eyes briefly, maybe trying to conjure up that sunset, then nods his head. “Thank you.”

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.

49.

I clench his hands to the point of pain. “Stay with me.”

His pupils contract to pinpoints, dilate again rapidly, then return to something resembling normalcy. “Always,” he murmurs.

50.

Closing my eyes doesn’t help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.

51.

I raise my left arm and twist my neck down to rip off the pill on my sleeve. Instead my teeth sink into flesh. I yank my head back in confusion to find myself looking into Peeta’s eyes, only now they hold my gaze. Blood runs from the teeth marks on the hand he’s clamped over my nightlock.

“Let me go!” I snarl at him, trying to rest my arm from his grasp.

“I can’t,” he says.

52.

“Are you preparing for another war, Plutarch?” I ask.

“Oh, not now. Now we’re in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,” he says. “But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.”

“What?” I ask.

“The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that.”

53.

“I knew you’d kiss me.”

“How?” I say. Because I didn’t know myself.

“Because I am in pain,” he says. “That’s the only way I get your attention.”

54.

“Finnick!” And suddenly, it’s as if there’s no one in the world but these two, crashing through space to reach each other. They collide, enfold, lose their balance, and slam against a wall, where they stay. Clinging into one being. Indivisible. A pang of jealous hits me. Not for either Finnick or Annie but for their certainty. No one seeing them could doubt their love.”

55.

“Is that why you hate me?” I ask.

“Partly,” she admits. “Jealousy is certainly involved. I also think you’re a little hard to swallow. With your tacky romantic drama and your defender-of-the-helpless act. Only it isn’t an act, which makes you more unbearable. Please feel free to take this personally.”

56.

“Fire is catching!” I am shouting now, determined that he will not miss a word. “And if we burn, you burn with us!”

57.

Several sets of arms embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he’s there, holding me and patting my back. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay, sweetheart.” He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps his arm around me while I sob.

58.

“I’m not their slave,” the man mutters.

“I am,” I say. “That’s why I killed Cato… and he killed Thresh… and he killed Clove… and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not us. Not the districts. Always the Capitol. But I’m tired of being a piece in their games.”

59.

“We’re old friends,” says Johanna, patting the space beside her. The guards nod and Peeta takes a seat. “Peeta and I had adjoining cells in the Capitol. We’re very familiar with each other’s screams.”

60.

“Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?” says Peeta. “It costs everything you are.”

61.

“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 to give in to it. It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

62.

Lady licking Prim’s cheek. My father’s laugh. Peeta’s father with the cookies. The color of Finnick’s eyes. What Cinnamon could do with a length of silk. Boggs reprogramming the Holo. Rue poised on her toes, arms slightly extended, like a bird about to take flight. On and on. We seal the pages with salt water and promises to live well to make their death count.

63.

It’s as if I’m Finnick, watching images of my life flash by. The mast of a boat, a silver parachute, Mags laughing, a pink sky, Beetee’s trident, Annie in her wedding dress, waves breaking over rocks. Then it’s over.

64.

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. And only Peeta can give me that.

So after, when he whispers, “You love me. Real or not real?”

I tell him, “Real.”

65.

I’ll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything 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.

The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes (2020)

66.

“People aren’t so bad, really,” she said. “It’s what the world does to them.”

67.

Snow falls on top.

68.

“You’ve no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they’re not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn’t give you that right. Having more weapons doesn’t give you that right. Being from the Capitol doesn’t give you that right. Nothing does.”

69.

“I think there’s a natural goodness built into human beings. You know when you’ve stepped across the line into evil, and it’s your life’s challenge to try and stay on the right side of that line.”

70.

That is the thing with giving your heart. Yo never wait for someone to ask. You hold it out and hope they want it.

71.

Before need, before love, came trust.

72.

What are lies but attempts to conceal some sort of weakness?

73.

“The show’s not over until the mockingjay sings,” she said.

“The mockingjay?” He laughed. “Really, I think you’re just making these things up.”

“Not that one. A mockingjay’s a bona fide bird,” she assures him.

“And it sings in your show?” He asked.

“Not my show, sweetheart. Yours. The Capitol’s, anyway.”

74.

Coriolanus could see that Festus was falling for her. Did you tell your best friend his crush was a cannibal? Never a rule book when you needed one. 

75.

There is a point to everything or nothing at all, depending on your worldview.

76.

“I’m planning tomorrow” said Sejanus. “I’m planning to build a whole new beautiful life here. One where, in my own small way, I can make the world a better place.”

77.

Courage in battle was often necessarily because of someone else’s poor planning.

78.

For a moment he laughed, forgetting where they were, how depressing the backdrop. For a moment there was just her smile, the musical cadence of her voice, the hint of flirtation. Then the world exploded.

79.

If the people who were supposed to protect you played so fast and loose with your life, then how did you survive? Not by trusting them, that was for sure. And if you couldn’t trust them, who could you trust? All bets were off.

Sunrise On The Reaping (2025)

80.

The snow may fall, but the sun also rises.

81.

They will not use my tears for their entertainment.

82.

The moment our hearts shattered? It belongs to us.

83.

And that’s part of our trouble. Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible.

84.

“You were capable of imagining a different future. And maybe it won’t be realized today, maybe not in our lifetime. Maybe it will take generations. We’re all part of a continuum. Does that make it pointless?”

85.

I guess that’s my answer. A sister is someone you fight with and fight for. Tooth and nail.

86.

“She doesn’t belong to them,” snaps Maysilee. “Don’t just hand her over. Make them fight for her. Run!” So I do. And I’m a fast runner. The only kid who can beat me in footraces at school is Woodbine Chance. Well, he used to, anyway. I run for Louella, but I run for Woodbine, too, because he’ll never run again.

87.

Sometimes she cries because things are so beautiful and we keep messing them up. Because the world doesn’t have to be so terrifying. That’s on people, not the world.

88.

I know that every year for my birthday, I will get a new pair of tributes, one girl and one boy, to mentor to their deaths. Another sunrise on the reaping.

89.

And while Lenore Dove will forever be my true love, Louella is my one and only sweetheart.

90.

A cannon fires. Somewhere, Beetee’s heart breaks into fragments so small it can never be repaired.

91.

Each book’s as precious as a person, she says, as it preserves someone’s thoughts and feelings long after they’re gone.

92.

She touches the snake’s head, then the bird’s, in turn. “It takes a lot other break these two. They’re survivors.”

93.

I would welcome death, if it wasn’t for my promise to Lenore Dove that I would somehow keep the sun from rising on the reaping.

94.

I know one thing, though: The Capitol can never take Lenore Dove from me again. They never really did in the first place. Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping, and she is the most precious thing I’ve ever known.

When I tell her that, she always says, “I love you like all-fire.”

And I reply, “I love you like all-fire, too.”

95.

When Lenore Dove comes to me now, she’s not angry or dying, so I think she’s forgiven me. She’s grown older with me, her face etched with fine lines, her hair touched with gray. Like she’s been living her life beside me as the years passed, instead of lying in her grave. Still so rare and radiant. I fulfilled my promise about the reaping, or at least lent a hand, but she says I can’t come to her yet. I have to look after my family.