Suzanne Collins Quotes

Abuse is the means in which violence retards love.

The fear tactic is a tactic that's used by people who want to maintain control, and it's very effective.

It's easier to control people when they're afraid.

Man is always exploited through fear.

These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through. Now he hears the ice creak beneath him, and so intense and panicking is the sensation that he has to stand for a moment, press his hands to his face and catch his breath.

I would rather you love me, but if not love, fear will do.

When you say or do anything to please, get, keep, influence, or control anyone or anything, fear is the cause and pain is the result.

Once they get their hooks into you, you're a dead pigeon.

I had been, you know, held in the closet for two months and, you know, abused in all manner of ways. I was very good at doing what I was told.

You can compel fear. You can even make someone feel they're in love if they're isolated and dependent for long enough. But laughter is free.

Even a faithful mistress can be bent by constant threats.

I have said that gymnastics can be abusive and brutal. That was my experience. I felt trapped in a world where authority figures were dictating my future.

Romance takes place when you first fall in love. It stirs all emotions and you can manipulate and be manipulated.

If you want to control someone, all you have to do is to make them feel afraid.

I thought I was being loved because I was being altered.

Fear is a hammer, and when the people are beaten finally to the conviction that their existence hangs by a frayed thread, they will be led where they need to go.

She wept with shame for her lack of will and with fear for a love she couldn't control.

The monsters in my head are scared of love.

That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy.

Love is the opposite of power. That's why we fear it so much.

I can frighten or buy ninety-nine out of every one hundred men.

Do you know what happened the last time I loved someone?” Growled against my skin with such tempered violence that my shiver turned into a shudder. I nodded. “No you don’t.” Another lethal growl. “You only know how she died. Let me tell you how she lived— in fear. My actions horrified her, as they horrify you. My enemies exploited her, as they exploit you, so it was more than an advancing army that made her throw herself from our roof. It was me.

Then why are you crying?” “Because of you!” I beat my fists on his chest. “Because I love you, and I don’t know what to do! I can solve almost any problem, but I can’t solve this. I don’t know how to deal with that. And I’m afraid! Afraid for you! Do you know what it’d do to me if something happens to you?” I stopped hitting him and clasped my hands over my own chest, as though there was a danger my heart might fall out. “This! This would break. Shatter. Crumble. Crumble until it was dust.” I dropped my hands. “Blown away on the wind until there was nothing left.

From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.

If somebody says, "I love you," to me, I feel as though I had a pistol pointed at my head. What can anybody reply under such conditions but that which the pistol-holder requires? "I love you, too."