“I looked at the campers, all of them grim and determined. I tried not to feel like this was the last time I'd ever see them all together. 'You're the greatest heroes of this millennium,' I told them. 'It doesn't matter how many monsters come at you. Fight bravely, and we will win.' I raised Riptide and shouted, 'FOR OLYMPUS!' They shouted in response, and our forty voices echoed off the buildings of Midtown.”

“I told you, computers are like women. If you shout at them or ask them to do too many things at once, they shut down and you won't even get a sniff”

“America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please, not just one droning glamourous reasonable voice.”

“It doesn't matter how many they kill," I told him. "And it's not awesome-it's wrong.""Then why do you talk about them all the time?" asked Max."Because wrong is interesting.”

“I was aware now, as ever, that between all people there were First Times You See Them and Last Times you See Them. ”

“A year seems very long to wait before I see them, but remind them that while we wait we may all work, so these hard days need not be wasted. I know they will remember all I said to them, that they will be loving children to you, will do their duty faithfully, fight their bosom enemies bravely, and conquer themselves so beautifully that when I come back to them I may be fonder and prouder than ever of my little women.”