Rick Riordan

“So,’ Nico said, ‘since we’re going to be spending at least a year seeing each other at camp, I think I should clear the air.’ Percy’s smile wavered. ‘What do you mean?”

“We’re fine.’ A few feet away, Aurum snarled quietly, which meant Nico was lying.”

“But magic is neither good nor evil. It is a tool, like a knife. Is a knife evil? Only if the wielder is evil.”

“Sometimes wisdom came from strange places, even from giant teenaged goldfish.”

“He hated when his own advice applied to himself.”

“After his experience with Minos, Nico realized that most spectres held only as much power as you allowed them to have. They pried into your mind, using fear or anger or longing to influence...”

“Nico knew something about ghosts. Letting them get inside your head was dangerous. He wanted to help Reyna, but since his own strategy was to deal with his problems alone, spurning anyone wh...”

“The main thing about ghosts – most of them have lost their voices. In Asphodel, millions of them wander around aimlessly, trying to remember who they were. You know why they end up like that...”

“And,” Annabeth continued, “it reminds me how long we’ve known each other. We were twelve, Percy. Can you believe that?” “No, he admitted. “So…you knew you liked me from that moment?” She smi...”

“Annabeth,” he said hesitantly, “in New Rome, demigods can live their whole lives in peace.” Her expression turned guarded. “Reyna explained it to me. But, Percy, you belong at Camp Half-Bloo...”

“She'd secretly had a crush on him since they were twelve years old. Last summer, she'd fallen for him hard.”

“I tried to think of something to say. Excuse me? Hello? Marry me? Anything would have done.”

“You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.”

“One false step, and you’ll fall all the way to Tartarus—and believe me, unlike the Doors of Death, this would be a one-way trip, a very hard fall! I will not have you dying before you tell m...”

“Nico found a sort of freedom in knowing that eventually, no matter what happened, he would end up at the foot of his father’s throne.”

“Then Thalia Grace became their leader and started recruiting even more young women to their cause, which grated on Nico – as if Bianca’s death could be forgotten. As if she could be replaced...”

“Nico didn’t like to be touched, but somehow this brief contact with his father felt reassuring – the same way the Chapel of Bones was reassuring. Like death, his father’s presence was cold a...”

“Getting a second life is one thing. Making a better life, that's the trick.”

“Because Hope survives best at the hearth', I said. 'Guard it for me, and I won't be tempted to give up again.”

“I tell aspiring writers that you have to find what you MUST write. When you find it, you will know, because the subject matter won’t let you go. It’s not enough to write simply because you t...”