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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Book by Suzanne Collins · 42 quotes · Coriolanus Snow, Lucy Gray Baird, Love

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Quotes

“Coriolanus thought about what it had felt like to be in the arena, where there were no rules, no laws, no consequences to one’s actions. The needle of his moral compass had swung madly without direction. Fueled by the terror of being prey, how quickly he himself had become a predator, with no reservations about smashing Bobbin to death. He’d transformed, all right, but not into anything he was proud of.”

“That's our right," Dr. Gaul countered. "No, it isn't! I don't care what you say. You've no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. These are things everyone is born with, and they're not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn't give you the right., having more weapons' doesn't give you that right. Being from the capital doesn't give you that right. Nothing does.”

“─Habría sido bonito habernos conocido en otras circunstancias ─respondió ella con una sonrisa melancólica. ─¿Por ejemplo? ─preguntó él. ─Bueno, por ejemplo, si me hubieras oído cantar en uno de mis espectáculos, Y después te hubieras acercado para charlar, y puede que tomar algo y bailar. Coriolanus se lo imaginaba, la veía cantando en un sutio como el club de Pluribus, a él fijándose en ella, y los dos conectando antes de incluso conocerse. ─Y habría vuelto la noche siguiente. ─Como si tuviéramos todo el tiempo del mundo.”

“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.”

“You can blame it on the circumstances, the environment, but you made the choices you made, no one else. It's a lot to take in all at once, but it's essential that you make an effort to answer that question. Who are human beings? Because who we are determines the type of governing we need. Later on, I hope you can reflect and be honest with yourself about that you learned tonight.”

“His girl. His. Here in the Capitol, it was a given that Lucy Gray belonged to him, as if she’d had no life before her name was called out at the reaping. Even that sanctimonious Sejanus believed she was something he could trade for. If that wasn’t ownership, what was? With her song, Lucy Gray had repudiated all that by featuring a life that had nothing to do with him, and a great deal to do with someone else. Someone she referred to as “lover,” no less. And while he had no claim on her heart — he barely knew the girl! — he didn’t like the idea of anyone else having it either. Although the song had been a clear success, he felt somehow betrayed by it. Even humiliated.”