“Glimmer, I hear someone call her - ugh, the names the people in District 1 give their children are so ridiculous ...”

“Katniss! Katniss! I can hear my name called from all sides. Everyone wants my kisses.”

“My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. There is no District 12. I am the Mockingjay. I brought down the Capitol. President Snow hates me. He killed my sister. Now I will kill him. And then the Hunger Games will be over....”

“If I get home, I'll be so stinking rich, I'll be able to pay someone to do my hearing.”

“In District 12, looking old is something of an achievement since so many people die early. Yous see an elderly person you want to congratulate them on their longevity, ask the secret of survival.”

“Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me. But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim's place, and now it seems I have become someone precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.”

“I begin to fully understand the lengths to which people have gone to protect me. What I mean to the rebels. My on going struggle against the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone. I have had thousands upon thousands of people from the districts at my side. I was their Mockingjay long before I accepted the role.”