“No matter how many times Percy killed them and watched them crumble to powder, they just kept re-forming like large evil dust bunnies.”

“They say dragons never truly die. No matter how many times you kill them.”

“Nevertheless, no matter how much they killed themselves with work, no matter how much money they eked out, and no matter how many schemes they thought of, their guardian angels were asleep with fatigue while they put in coins and took them out trying to get just enough to live with.”

“Yes, she loved the Lord and Lady in Their many forms . . . but those forms spanned the universe of space and time that sprang from Them, and They could be as terrible as the fiery death of suns, as inexorable as Time. A mother's kiss on her child's face came from Them, but so also the glaciers that grind continents to dust.”

“Troublesome things tend to remain troublesome no matter how many times you do them.”

“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.”