It’s my birthday, Horus insisted. Wish me happy birthday! “Happy birthday!” I yelled. “Now shut up! Rick Riordan More Quotes by Rick Riordan More Quotes From Rick Riordan your loved ones have been used to lure you into Kronos's traps. Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty Percy. You do not know when it is time to cut your losses. To save a friend you would sacrifice the world. Rick Riordan cutting loyalty loss 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 think it would be neat to be published. You have to be compelled to write. If you’re not, nothing else that you do matters. Rick Riordan would-be writing thinking WARNING: The following is a transcript of a digital recording. In certain places, the audio quality was poor, so some words and phrases represent the author's best guesses. Where possible, illustrations of important symbols mentioned in the recording have been added. Background noises such as scuffling, hitting, and cursing by the two speakers have not been transcribed The author makes no claims for the authenticity of the recording. It seems impossible that the two young narrators are telling the truth, but you, the reader, must decide for yourself. Rick Riordan background-noise illustration two Curled up at the base of the scales, fast asleep, was the oddest monster I'd seen yet. It had the head of crocodile with a lion's mane. The front half of its body was a lion, but the back end was sleek, brown, and fat - a hippo, I decided. The odd bit was, the animal was tiny - I mean, no larger than an average poodle, which I suppose made him a hippodoodle. Rick Riordan animal average mean I nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush. Rick Riordan eye lord blue I told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut. Rick Riordan doughnut Hestia shook her head. "I am here because when all else fails, when all the other mighty gods have gone off to war, I am all that's left. Home. Hearth. I am the last Olympian Rick Riordan gone home war A general never shows despair. He instills confidence in his troops. He leads them forward, even into the mouth of death. Rick Riordan troops despair leadership I'm Dylan. I'm so cool. I want to date myself, but I don't know how! You want to date me instead? You're so lucky! Rick Riordan dylan lucky want On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up. Rick Riordan jason shut-up sides I excel at pulling strings!” said Arachne. “I’m a spider! Rick Riordan spiders strings said Leo drummed his fingers. “Great. I should have installed a smoke screen that makes the ship smell like a giant chicken nugget. Remind me to invent that, next time.” Hazel frowned. “What is a chicken nugget?” “Oh, man…” Leo shook his head in amazement. “That's right. You’ve missed the last, like, seventy years. Well, my apprentice, a chicken nugget—” “Doesn’t matter,” Annabeth interrupted. Rick Riordan should-have men years I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing. Rick Riordan plumbing toilets In the old legends, Arachne had gotten into trouble because of pride. She’d bragged about her tapestries being better than Athena’s, which had led to Mount Olympus’s first reality TV punishment program: 'So You Think You Can Weave Better Than a Goddess?' Arachne had lost in a big way. Rick Riordan pride reality thinking Traitor!" Hera shouted. "You meddlesome, D-list goddess! You aren't worthy to pour my wine, much less rule the world. Rick Riordan lists wine world Twelve minutes. I can give you that. Rick Riordan twelve minutes giving I have a great deal of sympathy for reluctant readers because I was one. I would do anything to avoid reading. In my case, it wasn't until I was 13 and discovered the 'Lord of the Rings' that I learned to love reading. Rick Riordan cases reading lord She'd also called me brave...unless she was talking to the catfish. Rick Riordan catfish brave talking Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum. Rick Riordan family home trying In a way, it's nice to know that there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some devine force is really trying to mess up your day. Rick Riordan nice rain thinking