Cali > Cali's Quotes

“I try not to think. It interferes with being nuts -Leo Valdez”
― Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena

“Leo: Rainbows. Very macho.
Annabeth: Butch is our best equestrian, he gets along great with the pegasi.
Leo: Rainbows, ponies...
Butch: I'm gonna toss you off this chariot.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero

“Really?"
"No. I'm being ironic. Or is it sarcastic? I can never remember."
"Irony's cleverer, so you're probably being sarcastic.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Screaming Staircase

“Okay...' I hurried on. 'But why me?'
'You're a girl,' Lockwood called. 'Aren't you supposed to be more sensitive?'
'To emotions, yes. To nuances of human behavior. Not necessarily to secret passages in a wall.'
'Oh, it's much the same thing.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Screaming Staircase

“- Plan F, we follow Plan F, right now.
- Is that the one where we run away?
- Not at all. It's the one where we beat a dignified emergency retreat.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Whispering Skull

“What, are you queuing now? Just how British are you people? Don’t just stand in line! Kill somebody!”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Creeping Shadow

“You’re only a first year!” Tina cried. “And you’re already getting death threats! Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”
― Stuart Gibbs, Spy Camp

“Hey Ben! Just wanted you to know we’ll be coming for you soon. Your pals at SPYDER I”
― Stuart Gibbs, Spy Camp

“Don't feel bad, I'm usually about to die.”
― Rick Riordan, The Battle of the Labyrinth

“Hercules,huh? Percy frowned. "That guy was like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn--there he is.”
― Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena

“Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.

"Hey!" I protested.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“Our character isn’t defined by the battles we win or lose, but by the battles we dare to fight.”
― Robert Beatty, Serafina and the Black Cloak

“Did evil creatures think of themselves as evil? Or did they think they were doing what was right? Was evil something that was in your heart or was it how people viewed you?”
― Robert Beatty, Serafina and the Black Cloak

“She realized now that her life wasn’t just about who she was, but about who she would become.”
― Robert Beatty, Serafina and the Twisted Staff

“Her pa had told her once that true courage wasn’t because you didn’t feel fear. True courage was when you were scared of something, but you did it anyway because it needed to be done.”
― Robert Beatty, Serafina and the Splintered Heart

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“I am made of memories.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Name one hero who was happy.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Only the strong, the rich, and the dying think truth is a necessity; the rest of us know it for a luxury.”
― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief

“Ronan's second secret was Adam Parrish.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“He left bloody fingerprints on the rock, but there was something satisfying about that.
I was here. I exist. I’m alive, because I bleed.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue

“That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“This body holds the body. This arm holds the spear. And the spear cuts through water.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“If on listened, one could hear it in their voices. One can tell a lot, even in such a state, by the way someone speaks another's name.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“Blame is an endless circle.

And I seemed to be standing in the center of it.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water