Quotes from Rick Riordan

Where's the gold? I demanded. Don't make me unleash my sword's playlist.

I rested my hand on Will's shoulder. 'Don't worry. We'll be back by dawn.' His mouth trembled ever so slightly. 'How can you be sure?' 'I'm the sun god,' I said, trying to muster more confidence than I felt. 'I always return at dawn.

A general never shows despair. He instills confidence in his troops. He leads them forward, even into the mouth of death.

Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to 'clean' it, and suddenly you can't find anything?

I don't leave her speechless very often. I have to enjoy those rare moments.

The only strange thing about Jackson was the tattoo on the inside of his forearm - a trident as dark as seared wood, with a single line underneath and the letters SPQR. He'd told me the letters stood for Sono Pazzi Quelli Romani - those Romans are crazy . I wasn't sure if he was kidding.

You never know!" Neith snapped. "The point is, I'll survive the apocalypse. I can live off the land!" She jabbed a finger at me. "Did you know the palm tree has six different edible parts?" "Um—" "And I'll never be bored," Neith continued, "since I'm also the goddess of weaving. I have enough twine for a millennium of macramé!" I had no reply, as I wasn't sure what macramé was.

I think the hardest thing we can ever do is see someone for who they really are. Our parents. Our friends. Ourselves.

It's like I was connected to the plumping system.

Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. Her Aphrodite armour was pink and red, colour coordinated to match her clothes and makeup. She looked like Guerilla Warfare Barbie.

Well, said Apollo with a brave smile. You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?

Congratulations, man. What's her name? Estelle. It was my grandmother's name. Um, on my mom's side, obviously. Not Poseidon's. I approve, Alex said. Old-fashioned and elegant. Estelle Jackson. Well, Estelle Blofis , Percy corrected. My stepdad is Paul Blofis. Not much I can do about that surname, but my little sis is awesome. Five fingers. Five toes. Two eyes. She drools a lot. Just like her brother, Annabeth said. Alex laughed.

Aphrodite: Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart. Percy: But... I don't know where it's going. My heart, I mean.

You might not think a hippo could inspire terror. Screaming "Hippo!" doesn't have the same impact as screaming "Shark!" But I'm telling you—as the Egyptian Queen careened to one side, its paddle wheel lifting completely out of the water, and I saw that monster emerge from the deep, I nearly discovered the hieroglyphs for accident in my pants.

I felt a bit silly giving this advice to a girl who regularly fought monsters with golden swords, but I had promised Bill Nye the Science Guy I would always promote safe laboratory practices.

Chaos is impatient. It's random. And above all it's selfish. It tears down everything just for the sake of change, feeding on itself in constant hunger. But Chaos can also be appealing. It tempts you to believe that nothing matters except what you want.

I still don't get it Coach Hedge muttered as they roamed the centre aisle. They named a whole town after Leo's table? I think the town was here first, Coach Nico said.

He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea.

Frank, how did you do that? Jason yelled. Frank's head swam with pain. He forced himself not to pass out. I'm the ranking Roman officer, he said. They- uh, they don't recognize you. Sorry. Jason grimaced, but he didn't look particularly surprised. How can we help?

I wanted to keep things as normal as possible for the trainees, so I led my usual morning class. I called it Magic Problem-Solving 101. The trainees called it Whatever Works.

Frey was the god of spring and summer! read the caption. He was the god of wealth, abundance, and fertility. His twin sister, Freya, the goddess of love, was very pretty! She had cats!

Fascinating, he said. Such maneuverability! How does the wingspan compensate for the weight of the horse's body, I wonder? Blackjack cocked his head. Whaaaat?

G.I. Joe boxers!' Apollo screamed. 'OH—oh, I can't even... HAHAHAHAHA!' 'Aphrodite,' Athena giggled. 'You look simply lovely.' The gods couldn't stop laughing. Soon they were rolling on the floor, wiping tears from their eyes, taking photos with their phones to post on Tumblr.

If I'm going to burn, I might as well burn bright. This is for Jason.