Top 44 Rick Riordan Quotes

When I was in college, my parents’ house burned down, and took a lot of the possessions I’d grown up with. That’s probably one thing that made me realize material stuff is not really that important.

I tend to think of a myth and then explore how it would play out if it were happening in the modern-day world. I modify all the myths I use, but I stick very closely to their structure – it is the hidden teacher in me.

All of my characters tend to be montages of different people I’ve met: little bits and pieces of their personalities put together.

I’ve always found the second book in a series is the hardest to write.

There are so many fantastic stories and I want to bring Thor and Odin and the other gods into the modern world, just like I did with the Greeks and ‘Percy Jackson.’ I’ll give the books an urban setting and have young people interacting with the Norse gods.

‘Harry Potter’ opened so many doors for young adult literature. It really did convince the publishing industry that writing for children was a viable enterprise. And it also convinced a lot of people that kids will read if we give them books that they care about and love.

I don’t think I would ever inch my way up to Y.A. That audience is very well served. There are a lot of wonderful writers writing for Y.A. I feel like I’m in the right place.

I’ve always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

Because I am kind of distracted, I don’t tend to sit at my desk 9 to 5. It can be two hours a day, or, when I’m in the final editing stages, it can be 14 hours a day.

I stick closely to the structure of the myths. I may have some fun with the mythology by changing the environment to modern-day, but the structure of the myths, the monsters, the relationships of the gods – none of that is made up.

I like both Greek and Egyptian. More Greek stories have survived, so we know more about them. They’ve always been my favorite. On the other hand, I like the Egyptian stories because they’re not as commonly known and they have an exotic flavour.

I sometimes look at my bookshelves today and wonder which volumes my sons will treasure in twenty or thirty years. Which should I be saving for them? Which will fade with time?

If the parents are too busy to read, it’s a safe bet the children will feel the same way. Set aside time for family reading each night. It doesn’t matter so much what the kids read, as long as you provide them space for reading and a sense that it is a valuable part of your daily routine.

The Met is such a powerful place for me because it’s a natural connection between the ancient world and the modern world. And when you’re dealing with ancient mythology, trying to put a modern spin on it, you really can’t do much better than to call on the Met.

Back when I taught middle school and wrote adult mysteries, my students often asked me why I wasn’t writing for kids. I never had a good answer for them. It took me a long time to realize they were right.

Writing ‘Book 1: The Maze of Bones’ didn’t feel much different than writing one of my other novels, but I thought it was very innovative to offer the website and trading card components as well for those readers who wanted to go more in depth with the Cahill experience.

It’s always hard to wrap up a series. The longer I spend with the characters, the more they become like friends.

I think the more you understand myths, the more you understand the roots of our culture and the more things will resonate. Do you have to know them? No, but certainly it is nice to recognise how deeply these things are embedded in our literature, our art.

I can’t actually wrap my mind around it easily – I can’t really visualize what 2 million books looks like… So I try to keep it real for myself by focusing on individual anecdotes of how my books have helped kids learn to love reading.

The older I get, the less I obsess about material stuff. In fact, stuff has become the enemy. There always seems to be more of it than I have storage in my house!

I think that kids have a greater capacity for processing things than we give them credit for.

I have more ideas than I’ll ever be able to write in five lifetimes.

I think children love reading, and they will make time for it if we put the right books into their hands. And I hope I get the chance to keep being one of the people that writes them.

I don’t teach anymore, but I can still clearly see fifth period after lunch – that’s a real tough time to teach. And I tried to imagine writing a story that would appeal to those kids – even when they’re tired, even when they’re bouncing off the walls.

I think kids want the same thing from a book that adults want – a fast-paced story, characters worth caring about, humor, surprises, and mystery. A good book always keeps you asking questions, and makes you keep turning pages so you can find out the answers.

I saw ‘The 39 Clues’ as a potential vehicle for doing some education in a fun way – to take some of these amazing stories from history, dust them off and make them alive.

The images from the book you make in your head are always going to be the best images.

I come to writing the same way I come to teaching, which is that my goal is always to create life-long readers.

You know, how much order is good? And when does order become too restrictive? Is a little bit of chaos okay, or is chaos always an evil force? I mean, these are questions that any kid who’s ever been in a school cafeteria can relate to.

My goal in the classroom was always to make sure they were having so much fun that they didn’t realize they were learning.

I do like to wrap things up and leave some things to the readers’ imagination.

I love teaching. I love working with kids… maybe some day I’ll go back to the classroom. I’m not ready to say it’ll never happen.

You have to work hard to get to the top of your game. I think every writer has doubts! I still do all the time.

I have to be careful. My readers are very detail-oriented, and if I make a mistake they’ll call me on it.

I have a great deal of sympathy for reluctant readers because I was one. I would do anything to avoid reading. In my case, it wasn’t until I was 13 and discovered the ‘Lord of the Rings’ that I learned to love reading.

I like to have a simple workplace.

I wanted my students to leave my classroom loving reading and wanting to read more, and if they left my classroom thinking that reading is boring, then I haven’t done my job.

I love Norse mythology – Thor and Odin and Loki – amazing characters.

I think anytime you’re writing to the middle grades, you’re writing to young readers who are trapped in a number of ways between two worlds: between childhood and adulthood, between their friends and their parents.

I’ve never been a collector – just a consumer – and these days unless a book is signed to me by another author, I don’t normally have any qualms about passing it to a friend or donating it to the library.

I don’t think about being famous, really. Being an author, I don’t generally get stopped as I walk down the street. It’s not like being a movie star.

To a degree, the Greek and Roman mythological heroes are just the first superheroes. They appeal to children for much the same reason. These gods and heroes may have powers, but they get angry and they do the wrong thing. They are human too.

When I was young, my favorite picture book was ‘Fletcher and Zenobia,’ written by Edward Gorey and illustrated by Victoria Chess. It’s long out of print now, but its mix of macabre humor and 1960s psychedelia made it a perfect children’s book for the times.

There are days when I’ll write for 15 minutes and have to give up and move around, and I’ll write another paragraph and give up again. On other days I get intensely – focused on the process, sit down at 8 A.M. and won’t get up until 8 P.M.