Have you ever had so many thoughts churning inside that you didn’t dare let them escape, in case they blew you wide open

— Ellen Hopkins

Have you ever had so much to say that your mouth closed up tight struggling to harness the nuclear force coalescing within your words? Have you ever had so many thoughts churning inside you that you didn’ttheir let them escape in case they blew you wide open? Have you Everdeen so angry that you couldn’t look in the mirror for fear of finding the face of evil glaring back at you?

— Ellen Hopkins

Home... Home....the word, ...has...no...meaning

— Ellen Hopkins

Honesty. Sobriety. My virginity. No way to regain the first two, I almost gave away the last.

— Ellen Hopkins

HOW do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, soWHYpush to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree where you want to be? Faultless. Finished. Incomparable. People can never be these, and anyway, WHENdid creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the personWHOlives inside your skin? The outside belongs to others. Only you should decide for you -Whats perfect.

— Ellen Hopkins

How far we claim to have come - accepting all men as created equal. Gender being the requisite qualifier, as women are not reviewed in the same fashion - their fashion hopefully better suited to the bedroom than the boardroom. And, you know, homosexuals not really being 'men,' cannot be judged equivalent to their stiffer-wrested brethren. On religion, well, some Christians are willing to make room for a Jew or two in their inner circles. But Mecca-facing prayer must be met with flaming crosses. Close your eyes to the details, the big picture can still be viewed through rose-colored glass. But go any distance beyond the rhetoric, truth becomes a shadowed lens.

— Ellen Hopkins

Hurt. Enough to want to make someone else hurt too.

— Ellen Hopkins

I blamed the Bible, when its words were not at fault, only the way they’re interpreted by those too willing to wield them like chain saws, cutting others off at the knees.

— Ellen Hopkins

I don't believe in God, don't believe in the devil. Unless you want to count my mother. She might be Satan's sister, I suppose.

— Ellen Hopkins

I don’t know449that much about the Bible, other than it was written thousands of years ago, which dilute sits relevance. However, I know its faithful followers tend to cherry-pick verses to suit their needs, the same way they cherry-pick words or scenes from other books to label obscene.

— Ellen Hopkins