“I know my own reasons for keeping Peeta alive. He’s my friend, and this is my way to defy the Capitol, to subvert its terrible Games. But if I had no real ties to him, what would make me want to save him, to choose him over myself? Certainly he is brave, but we all have been brave enough to survive a Games. There is that quality of goodness that’s hard to overlook, but still … and then I think of it, what Peeta can do so much better than the rest of us. He can use words. He obliterated the rest of the field at both interviews. And maybe it’s because of that underlying goodness that he can move a crowd–no, a country–to his side with the turn of a simple sentence.
I remember thinking that this was the gift the leader of our revolution should have. Has Haymitch convinced the others of this? That Peeta’s tongue would have far greater power against the Capitol than any physical strength the rest of us could claim? I don’t know.”
–Suzanne Collins. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009. Kindle edition. Quote in chapter 23.