“Don’t decide yet,” Hephaestus advised. “Wait until daybreak. Daybreak is a good time for decisions.”

A hero can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as he has the nerve.

Knowledge of any value can’t be given. It must be sought and earned

Think positive girl, or the world ends.

I think I write for reluctant readers. Of course I want everyone to enjoy my books, but if the kids in the back row who normally don’t pick up a book are engaged with what I’m writing, along with the kids who are big readers anyway, then I really feel like I’ve done my job.

Young people don’t always do what they’re told, but if they can pull it off and do something wonderful, sometimes they escape punishment.

Never bet against a cat.

Great victory requires great risk. -Hera

The most dangerous flaws are those which are good in moderation.

Frank stared at him. “Unfair? You can breathe underwater and blow up glaciers and summon freaking hurricanes-and it’s unfair that I can be an elephant?” Percy considered. “Okay. I guess you got a point. But the next time I say you’re totally beast-” “Just shut up,” Frank said. “Please.” Percy cracked a smile.

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

A giant vulture with a girl hanging from its feet tends to attract attention.

Whathat!” Tyson gasped. “Those are the stables for the pegasi,” I replied, “You know, winged horses?” “Whasthat!” “Um… those are the toilets.

We were just looking at maps.

We choose to believe in Ma’at. We create order out of chaos, beauty out of ugly randomness. That’s what Egypt is all about.

Be careful of love. It’ll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong.

Sometimes, it takes us a while to appreciate something new, something that might change us for the better.

I look forward and see myself look back.

Looking back, I now see so many similarities between my own childhood and that of my sons. My father stepped in when I needed him, and that gave me the chance for a better life. That’s what I’m doing for my boys now.

For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law.

I don’t get tired. I get beat up. You keep chopping on a tree, you need to give the tree some rest so the chlorophyll will fill back up and the tree gets its energy back.

When I went off to college in 1997, I didn’t go back and watch ‘Conan.’ I was out partying and dating women.

Jealousy is invariably a symptom. Just like right now with the whole mortgage crisis, I want to help people get back into their homes.

I was just a big fan of tattoos always growing up, and I wanted something cool that symbolizes what I’ve been through in my life, and everything on my chest and my back is like a collage.

My wrists are crooked and don’t go all the way back. I’ve been practicing and working on them. You can’t do everything good.