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All Quotes by author - Rick Riordan
" All of my characters tend to be montages of different people I've met: little bits and pieces of their personalities put together. "
Together
Met
People
" As a teacher, I've never seen anything like 'Harry Potter.' That's why I smart when people talk about the 'next' 'Harry Potter.' There is no 'next' 'Harry Potter.' "
Talk
Smart
People
" 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
Time
School
" 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. "
Two
Kind
I Am
" Even if these stories are 3,000 years old, there's still so much about the characters, about the dilemmas, about their understanding of the universe that still resonates. The whole idea of order and chaos, which is really central to the ancient Egyptian understanding of the world, is still very much with us. "
Universe
World
Chaos
" Every child is different. I think it's important that we don't have maybe just one or two books that we're recommending to all children - but rather we cater the books to fit each individual child. "
Child
Important
Think
" Every child's taste is different. Don't worry if they're not reading 'War and Peace' at age 12. First, build a good foundation and a positive attitude about reading by letting them pick the stories they enjoy. Make friends with a bookseller or librarian. They are a wealth of information on finding books that kids enjoy. "
Attitude
Good
Peace
" For me, writing for kids is harder because they're a more discriminating audience. While adults might stay with you, if you lose your pacing or if you have pages of extraneous description, a kid's not going to do that. They will drop the book. "
Me
Lose
Book
" I always love it when I hear back from kids who say they discovered Percy Jackson and now wear their learning difference as a badge of honour. "
Now
Always
Back
" 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. "
Myself
Learn
Love
" I can't promise that every child with learning differences will become a novelist, but I do think all children can become lifelong readers. "
Will
Think
Learning
" I come to writing the same way I come to teaching, which is that my goal is always to create life-long readers. "
Create
Writing
Same
" I do like to wrap things up and leave some things to the readers' imagination. "
Leave
Up
Things
" 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. "
Writing
Tough
Tired
" 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. "
Down
Star
Street
" 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. "
Think
Audience
Feel
" I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the level of success I've had. I was just writing stories for my own sons. "
Feel
Writing
Success
" 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. "
Daily
Family
Reading
" I get letters from college kids who have read Percy Jackson when they were younger who tell me, 'I just passed my Classics exam.' The books are accurate enough that they can serve as a gateway to Homer and Virgil. "
Me
Letters
Just
" I go back and research, say, every reference to the Gorgons, and I find what the classical writers said about them and it's so much richer than you might get in an average Greek mythology text. I feel like an archaeologist - I'm dusting off these things that people have not seen for thousands of years and bringing them into the modern world. "
People
Research
Say
" 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. "
Love
Great
Reading
" I have more ideas than I'll ever be able to write in five lifetimes. "
Write
Able
Five
" I have to be careful. My readers are very detail-oriented, and if I make a mistake they'll call me on it. "
Careful
Be Careful
Call
" 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. "
More
Always
Hand
" I like to have a simple workplace. "
Simple
Like
Workplace
" I loved the idea of making history interesting for kids! When Scholastic approached me about 'The 39 Clues', I immediately started going through the 'greatest hits' from my years as a social studies teacher, and picked the historical characters and eras that most appealed to my students. "
History
Loved
Interesting
" I love Norse mythology - Thor and Odin and Loki - amazing characters. "
Characters
Amazing
Love
" 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. "
Classroom
Back
Say
" I'm a teacher still, but with a much larger classroom. "
Still
Classroom
Larger
" 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. "
Fun
Amazing
Doing
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