Sah > Sah's Quotes

“No story ever ends, does it? It just leads into others.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“So, dear reader, we have come to the end of my trials. You have followed me through five volumes of adventures and six months of pain and suffering. By my reckoning, you have read two hundred and ten of my haiku. Like Meg, you surely deserve a reward. What would you accept? I am fresh out of unicorns. However, anytime you take aim and prepare to fire your best shot, anytime you seek to put your emotions into a song or poem, know that I am smiling on you. We are friends now. Call on me. I will be there for you.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“At last, as the sun went down, Meg seemed to understand it was time for me to leave. “You’ll come back?” she asked. “Always,” I promised. “The sun always comes back.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“He had been born in Mussolini’s Italy. He had survived decades in the time-warp reality of the Lotus Casino. He’d emerged in modern times disoriented and culture-shocked, arrived at Camp Half-Blood, and promptly lost his sister Bianca to a dangerous quest. He had wandered the Labyrinth in self-imposed exile, being tortured and brainwashed by a malevolent ghost. He’d overcome everyone’s distrust and emerged from the Battle of Manhattan as a hero. He’d been captured by giants during the rise of Gaea. He’d wandered Tartarus alone and somehow managed to come out alive. And through it all, he’d struggled with his upbringing as a conservative Catholic Italian male from the 1930s and finally learned to accept himself as a young gay man. Anyone who could survive all that had more resilience than Stygian iron.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Call on me. I will be there for you.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“[Nero] jumped off his couch and marched straight toward me, his whole body starting to glow, because Will Solace couldn't have his own thing. Oh, no, Nero had to glow, too.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Nico laughed, which I didn’t know he was capable of.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Dude!” Percy stuffed a cookie in his mouth. His eyes rolled up in ecstasy. “Apollo, you’re the best. I take back almost everything I’ve said about you.” “It’s quite all right,” I assured him. “Wait…what do you mean almost?”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“WHEN TRAVELING THROUGH WASHINGTON, DC, one expects to see a few snakes in human clothing.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Rachel pulled out a blue plastic hairbrush and threw it at the nearest barbarian, beaning him in the eye and making him howl. Sorry I underestimated you, Rachel, I thought distantly. You’re actually kind of a hairbrush ninja.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“William Andrew Solace,” Nico said, “do you have something to confess?”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“I wanted to go back to a time before all the sacrifices had been made. Before I had experienced so much pain. But making things right could not mean rewinding the clock. Even Kronos hadn't had that much power over time.
I suspected that wasn't what Jason Grace would want, either.
When he'd told me to remember being human, he'd meant building on pain and tragedy, overcoming it, learning from it. That was something gods never did. We just complained.
To be human is to move forward, to adapt, to believe in your ability to make things better. That is the only way to make the pain and sacrifice mean something.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“With his sanity intact,” I agreed. Then I looked again at Dionysus, god of madness, who seemed to be giving Nico advice. “Oh…”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“FARE THEE WELL, FRIEND, said the arrow. APOLLO WILL FALL, BUT APOLLO MUST RISE AGAIN.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“One trog whispered, “Who is that?” His companion whispered back, “Don’t know, but he can’t be important. He’s wearing a Mets hat.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Ladies,” I said, using the term loosely, “I may not look like Apollo, but I assure you it’s me, trapped in this mortal body. Otherwise, how could I know so much about you?” “Like what?” demanded Tempest. “Your favorite nectar flavor is caramel crème,” I said. “Your favorite Beatle is Ringo. For centuries, all three of you had a massive crush on Ganymede, but now you like—” “He’s Apollo!” Wasp yelped. “Definitely Apollo!” Tempest wailed. “Annoying! Knows things!” “Let me in,” I said, “and I’ll shut up.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Faith that you will find a way to make wine out
of your sour grapes.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“(Hey, if the cow could jump over the moon, I didn’t see why the sun couldn’t jump over two cows.)”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“CONGRATULATIONS, PERCY THE GRADUTE! I did not ask why graduate was misspelled, dyslexia being so common in demigod families.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Anytime you take aim and prepare to fire your best shot, anytime you seek to put your emotions into a song, know that I am smiling on you.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Making music was its own sort of divinity.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Let's assume Lu is right,' Nico said. 'You get captured and put in this cell. She lets you out. You kill the guardian, destroy the fasces, weaken Nero, hooray. Even then, and I'm sorry to be a Debbie Downer —'
'I am calling you Debbie Downer from now on,' Will said gleefully.
'Shut up, Solace.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“If you love category-five rapids on a river that can drown you, dissolve your skin, and corrode your sense of self all at the same time, I highly recommend a giant serpent cruise on the Styx.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. 'The last time you were here, you were so lost. So . . . well, if you don't mind me saying —'
'Pathetic,' I blurted out. 'Whiny, entitled, selfish. I felt terribly sorry for myself.'
Meg nodded along with my words as if listening to her favourite song. 'You still feel sorry for yourself.'
'But now,' Sally said, sitting back again, 'you're more . . . human, I suppose.'
There was that word again: human, which not long ago I would have considered a terrible insult. Now, every time I heard it, I thought of Jason Grace's admonition: Remember what it's like to be human.
He hadn't meant all the terrible things about being human, of which there were plenty. He'd meant the best things: standing up for a just cause, putting others first, having stubborn faith that you could make a difference, even if it meant you had to die to protect your friends and what you believed in. These were not the kind of feelings that gods had . . . well, ever.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“People liked to be seen, even if it's by the cold, cruel eyes of fate.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Oh, gods, I thought. Nero was so good at being evil, and so evil at being good, he made the words lose their meaning. He could tell you the floor was the ceiling with such conviction you might start believing it, especially since any disagreement would unleash the Beast. I marveled how such a man could rise to be emperor of Rome. Then I marveled how such a man could ever lose control of Rome. It was easy to see how he’d gotten the mobs on his side.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“I’m Apollo,” I continued. “And this is Meg. I believe we’re expected? As in…hard deadline at sunset or the city burns?” The guard took a deep breath, as if it pained him to move. Keeping one finger in his novel, he picked up a pen and slapped it on the counter next to the sign-in book. “Names. IDs.” “You need our IDs to take us prisoner?” I asked.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Dude,” I muttered. “I am so sorry.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“How about this?” I drew the Arrow of Dodona from my quiver. “We’ll ask my prophetic friend. Surely it has a better idea—perhaps access to last-minute hotel deals!” I lifted the projectile in my trembling fingers. “O great Arrow of Dodona—” “Is he talking to that arrow?” Lu asked Meg. “He talks to inanimate objects,” Meg told her. “Humor him.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“To be honest though, I could no longer consider my time on Earth to have been a punishment. Terrible, tragic, nearly impossible . . . yes. But calling it a punishment gave Zeus too much credit. It had been a journey — an important one I made myself, with the help of my friends. I hoped . . . I believed that the grief and pain had shaped me into a better person. I had forged a more perfect Lester from the dregs of Apollo. I would not trade those experiences for anything.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero