“Afterward, I had the last laugh. I made an air bubble at the bottom of the lake. Our friends kept waiting for us to come up, but hey-when you are the son of Poseidon, you don’t have to hurry. And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.”

Egyptians believe in the power of the sunrise. They believe each morning begins not just a new day, but a new world.

The meeting was like a war council with donuts. Then again, back at Camp Half-Blood they used to have their most serious discussions around the Ping-Pong table in the rec room with crackers and Cheez Whiz, so Percy felt right at home.

Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.

It’s natural to feel fear. All great warriors are afraid. Only the stupid and the delusional are not.

Being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It just means that you’re brave enough to stand up and do what’s needed.

I always love it when I hear back from kids who say they discovered Percy Jackson and now wear their learning difference as a badge of honour.

Can’t this thing go any faster?” Thalia demanded. Zoe glared at her. “I cannot control traffic.” You both sound like my mother,” I said. Shut up!” they both said in union.

I don’t care what your nose says! The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!” “Meatloaf sandwiches are good! But this is a half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!” “Bah, your brain isn’t on board!

Sadie,” he said forlornly, “when you become a parent, you may understand this. One of my hardest jobs as a father, one of my greatest duties, was to realize that my own dreams, my own goals and wishes, are secondary to my children’s.

Is it fair your life burns so short and bright? Death had asked. “No such thing as fair,” Frank told himself. “If I’m going to burn, it might as well be bright.

On the bright side,” Percy said, “both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up.

The sea does not like to be restrained.

Love was the most savage monster of all.

Wisdom’s daughter walks alone, The mark of Athena burns through Rome.

Love is powerful. It can bring the gods to their knees.

Oh, did you expect me to play fair?” Cupid laughed. “I am the god of love. I am never fair.

Every actor has three versions of each scene – the one that you rehearse the night before, in your bedroom.

The one you actually get to do when you’re filming, and then the one you wish you would have done, afterward.

I would not say anything more. If I did say anything, afterwards I would always declare that you made me say it by force!

If ever I do escape, no one shall reproach me with having broken or violated my faith, not having given my word to any one, whosoever it may be.

When it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with thankfulness and fatigue, and whatever be my destiny afterward.

I don’t see my Oscar much now. But when I first got it, there was a feeling for weeks afterward that I guess is akin to winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

Read it to the class and then afterward we would talk and I would answer questions. It was really a way of expressing and finding out about where I was at that particular time, so it was very therapeutic for me.

Love, like light, is a thing that is enacted better than defined: we know it afterward by the traces it leaves on paper.