If you could press a button and your ego investment was less, the toothache would be less. Or less tragic at least.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

What Is A Belief?

...he was conscious of the disastrous fact that love and desire must be expressed in the same way...

We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future.

My view of the afterlife is that it's made of different levels, depending on how spiritual a life we live.

You're lucky to head a coalition government. I am a coalition government on my own.

In legislation we all do a lot of swapping tobacco across the lines.

If I'm really working on something, writing or painting or really concentrating, I don't even think about brushing my hair.

I trust most people. Not producers.

There's a chance that the old Peeta, the one who loves you, is still inside. Trying to get back to you. Don't give up on him.

We all make mistakes. If you can't make mistakes, you can't make decisions. I've made a lot bigger mistakes myself.