Background Image

...

Why Is It That When One Man Builds A Wall, The Next Man Immediately Needs To Know What's On The Other Side?

-George R. R. Martin

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Why Is It That

George R. R. Martin

...

Why Is It That When One Man Builds A Wall, The Next Man Immediately Needs To Know What's On The Other Side?

Views: 32438

Topic

More From George R. R. Martin

Too Stupid To Learn And Too Stupid To Give Up.

Believe It Or Not, I Worked Four Summers In College As A Sports Writer Covering Baseball For A Parks And Rec Department In Bayonne, N.j.

Once She Had Loved Prince Joffrey With All Her Heart, And Admired And Trusted Her His Mother, The Queen. They Had Repaid That Love And Trust With Her Father's Head. Sansa Would Never Make That Mistake Again.

When We Speak Of The Morrow Nothing Is Ever Certain.

She Never Forgets A Slight, Real Or Imagined. She Takes Caution For Cowardice And Dissent For Defiance. And She Is Greedy. Greedy For Power, For Honour, For Love.

Words Are Wind, Brienne Told Herself. They Cannot Hurt You. Let Them Wash Over You.

Wisdom Oft Comes From The Mouth Of Babes.

It Was The Easiest Thing In The World For Arya To Step Up Behind Him And Stab Him. “is There Gold Hidden In The Village?” She Shouted As She Drove The Blade Up Through His Back. “is There Silver? Gems?” She Stabbed Twice More. “is There Food? Where Is Lord Beric?” She Was On Top Of Him By Then, Still Stabbing. “where Did He Go? How Many Men Were With Him? How Many Knights? How Many Bowmen? How Many, How Many, How Many, How Many, How Many, How Many? Is There Gold In The Village?

You Would Consider Me An Atheist Or Agnostic. I Find Religion And Spirituality Fascinating. I Would Like To Believe This Isn’t The End And There’s Something More, But I Can’t Convince The Rational Part Of Me That That Makes Any Sense Whatsoever.

The Lord Of Winterfell Would Always Be A Stark

Jon Lied ... Loudly, As If That Could Make It True.

Sacrifice Is Never Easy Or It Is No True Sacrifice. - Stannis

Generally Speaking, I'm Much More In Favour Of Penises Entering Vaginas Than Axes Entering Skulls. But The World Seems To Accept The Violence A Lot Easier Than The Sex.

There Is No Shame In Loving. If Your Septons Say There Is, Your Seven Gods Must Be Demons. In The Isles We Know Better. Our Gods Gave Us Legs To Run With, Noses To Smell With, Hands To Touch And Feel. What Mad Cruel God Would Give A Man Eyes And Tell Him He Must Forever Keep Them Shut, And Never Look At All The Beauty In The World? Only A Monster God, A Demon Of The Darkness.

Is There Any Creature On Earth As Unfortunate As An Ugly Woman? (wonders Lady Catelyn Stark)

Viserys Sold My Mother's Crown, And Men Called Him A Beggar. I Shall Keep This One, So Men Will Call Me A Queen. (daenerys)

Sometimes There Is No Happy Choice, Sam, Only One Less Grievous Than The Others. - Jon Snow

As A Writer, My Goal, (which I'm Never Going To Achieve, And I Know That, And No Writer Can Achieve That,) But My Goal Is To Make You Almost Live The Books. I Want You To Fall Through That Page And Feel As If These Things Are Happening To You.

I Stayed Sober For This?

It Was That White Cloak That Soiled Me, Not The Other Way Around.

Jaime Lannister

...if You Dance With Dragons, You Must Expect To Burn.

Wizards Die The Same As Other Men, Once You Cut Their Heads Off.

There Has Never Been A Slave Who Did Not Choose To Be A Slave. Their Choice May Be Between Bondage And Death, But The Choice Is Always There.

Robert Wanted To Be Loved. My Brother Tyrion Has The Same Disease. Do You Want To Be Loved, Sansa?” “everyone Wants To Be Loved.” “i See Flowering Hasn’t Made You Any Brighter,” Said Cersei. “sansa, Permit Me To Share A Bit Of Womanly Wisdom With You On This Very Special Day. Love Is Poison. A Sweet Poison, Yes, But It Will Kill You All The Same.

His Dagger Was Out, Poised At Her Throat. “sing, Little Bird. Sing For Your Little Life.

One Of The Hardest Parts Of Writing Is Writing From The Gut Or The Heart Or Something Like That Rather Than Intellectually.

No Man Should Live Longer Than His Teeth.

There Are Worse Ways To Die Than Warm And Drunk.

He Drew The Dagger And Laid It On The Table Between Them; A Length Of Dragonbone And Valyrian Steel, As Sharp As The Difference Between Right And Wrong, Between True And False, Between Life And Death.

Better To Mock The Game Than To Play And Lose.

I Crossed A Thousand Leagues To Come To You, And Lost The Best Part Of Me Along The Way. Don't Tell Me To Leave.

Jaime Lannister

Shattered Legs May Heal In Time, But Some Betrayals Fester And Poison The Soul.

"weese," She Would Whisper, First Of All. "dunsen, Chiswyck, Polliver, Raff The Sweetling. The Tickler And The Hound. Ser Gregor, Ser Armory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei."

They Say It Grows So Cold Up Here In Winter That A Man’s Laughter Freezes In His Throat And Chokes Him To Death,” Ned Said Evenly. “perhaps That Is Why The Starks Have So Little Humor.

There Is Something Old And True In Fantasy That Speaks To Something Deep Within Us, To The Child Who Dreamt That One Day He Would Hunt The Forests Of The Night, And Feast Beneath The Hollow Hills, And Find A Love To Last Forever Somewhere South Of Oz And North Of Shangri-la.

The Old Man Laid A Withered, Spotted Hand On His Shoulder. "it Hurts, Boy," He Said Softly. "oh, Yes. Choosing . . . It Has Always Hurt. And Always Will. I Know.

The Apples Stewed With Prunes Are Excellent, Except For The Prunes, I Won't Eat Prunes Myself. Well, There Was One Time When Hobb Chopped Them Up With Chesnuts And Carrots And Hid Them In A Hen. Never Trust A Cook, My Lord. They'll Prune You When You Least Expect It.

If There Are Gods, Why Is The World So Full Of Pain And Injustice?' 'because Of Men Like You.

Eat Your Heart Out, Rowling. Maybe You Have Billions Of Dollars And My Hugo, But You Don't Have Readers Like These.

I Am Surrounded By Flatterers And Fools. It Can Drive A Man To Madness,.. . Half Of Them Don’t Dare Tell Me The Truth, And The Other Half Can’t Find It.

A Bear! A Bear! All Black And Brown And Covered In Hair!

I Suppose I'm A Lapsed Catholic. You Would Consider Me An Atheist Or Agnostic.

And What Lesson Can We Draw From Volantene History? If You Want To Conquer The World, You Best Have Dragons.

Conquer The World

We All Need To Be Mocked From Time To Time, Lest We Take Ourselves Too Seriously.

I Had This Desire To See The World. I Couldn't See Any Of It, But I Saw It In My Imagination, And That's Why I Always Read Books, And I Could Go To Mars Or Middle Earth Or The Hyborian Age.

Prince Rhaegar Loved His Lady Lyanna, And Thousands Died For It.

Some Men Want Whores On The Eve Of Battle, And Some Want Gods. Jon Wondered Who Felt Better Afterward.

I Have Climbed These Steps So Often I Know Each One By Name.

The Sun Will Soon Be Setting, And Corpses Make Poor Company By Night. These Were Dark And Dangerous Men, Alive. I Doubt That Death Will Have Improved Them.

The Way My Books Are Structured, Everyone Was Together, Then They All Went Their Separate Ways And The Story Deltas Out Like That, And Now It’s Getting To The Point Where The Story Is Beginning To Delta Back In, And The Viewpoint Characters Are Occasionally Meeting Up With Each Other Now And Being In The Same Point At The Same Time, Which Gives Me A Lot More Flexibility For Killing People.

Tell Robb That I'm Going To Command The Night's Watch And Keep Him Safe, So He Might As Well Take Up Needlework With The Girls And Have Mikken Melt Down His Sword For Horseshoes. - Jon Snow

I Have Always Regarded Historical Fiction And Fantasy As Sisters Under The Skin, Two Genres Separated At Birth.

'dreamsongs' Allows Me To Show The Scope Of My Writing - With Personal Commentary That Puts The Works In Context And Includes Some Autobiographical Details Intended To Reveal How Each Piece Came To Be, What It Represents, And How It Has Formed, Or Been Informed By, My Philosophy Of Writing.

Make No Mistake, Dwarf. I Fought For You, But I Do Not Love You'' ''it Was Your Blade I Needed'' Tyrion Said, ''not Your Love.

Power Is A Trick. It Lies Where We Believe It Lies.

I Am Only A Little Lion, Child, And I Vow, I Shall Not Savage You.

I Don't Like The Strictly Objective Viewpoint [in Which All Of The Characters' Actions Are Described In The Third Person, But We Never Hear What Any Of Them Are Thinking.] Which Is Much More Of A Cinematic Technique. Something Written In Third Person Objective Is What The Camera Sees. Because Unless You're Doing A Voiceover, Which Is Tremendously Clumsy, You Can't Hear The Ideas Of Characters. For That, We Depend On Subtle Clues That The Directors Put In And That The Actors Supply. I Can Actually Write, "'yes You Can Trust Me,' He Lied." [but It's Better To Get Inside The Characters' Heads.]

No Mortal Man Could Frighten Him, No More Than The Darkness Could, Nor The Bones Of His Soul, The Grey And Grisly Bones Of His Soul.

No One Who Wears A Crown Is Ever Safe.

It's Very Hard To Find A Good Child Actor. There Are A Lot Of Child Actors Out There, Especially In America, And They're Cute Kids, But Most Child Actors Appear On Sitcoms Where Their Main Role Is To Be Cute And Make Funny Little Remarks.

Death Is So Terribly Final, While Life Is Full Of Possibilities.

Lords Are Gold And Knights Steel, But Two Links Can't Make A Chain. You Also Need Silver And Iron And Lead, Tin And Copper And Bronze And All The Rest, And Those Are Farmers And Smiths And Merchants And The Like. A Chain Needs All Sorts Of Metals, And A Land Needs All Sorts Of People.

As Faulkner Says, All Of Us Have The Capacity In Us For Great Good And For Great Evil, For Love But Also For Hate. I Wanted To Write Those Kinds Of Complex Character In A Fantasy, And Not Just Have All The Good People Get Together To Fight The Bad Guy.

Tolkien Made The Wrong Choice When He Brought Gandalf Back. Screw Gandalf. He Had A Great Death And The Characters Should Have Had To Go On Without Him.

If I Die, I Die Friendless And Abandoned. What Choice Did That Leave Him, But To Live?

I Thank You For Calling Them Off, Young Ser. I Promise You, They Would Have Found Me Indigestible.

It Had Been More Of A Wish, Actually, But It Sounded Better To Call It A Dream.

In The Game Of Thrones, Even The Humblest Pieces Can Have Wills Of Their Own. Sometimes They Refuse To Make The Moves You've Planned For Them.

You Wear Your Honor Like A Suit Of Armor... You Think It Keeps You Safe, But All It Does Is Weigh You Down And Make It Hard For You To Move.

You've Got A Bold Tongue, Little Man. One Day, Someone Is Like To Cut It Out And Make You Eat It.

Men Will Always Underestimate You, He Said, And Their Pride Will Make Them Want To Vanquish You Quickly, Lest It Be Said That A Woman Tried Them Sorely. Let Them Spend Their Strength In Furious Attacks, Whilst You Conserve Your Own. Wait And Watch, Girl, Wait And Watch.

...ned Always Said That The Man Who Passes The Sentence Should Swing The Blade, Though He Never Took Any Joy In The Duty. But I Would, Oh, Yes.

Time Is Different For A Tree Than For A Man. Sun And Soil And Water, These Are The Things A Weirwood Understands, Not Days And Years And Centuries. For Men, Time Is A River. We Are Trapped In Its Flow, Hurtling From Past To Present, Always In The Same Direction. The Lives Of Trees Are Different. They Root And Grow And Die In One Place, And That River Does Not Move Them. The Oak Is The Acorn, The Acorn Is The Oak.

Don’t Call Me Lord Snow.” The Dwarf Lifted An Eyebrow. “would You Rather Be Called The Imp? Let Them See That Their Words Can Cut You And You’ll Never Be Free Of The Mockery. If They Want To Give You A Name Take It Make It Your Own. Then They Can’t Hurt You With It Anymore.

And Who Are You, The Proud Lord Said That I Must Bow So Low? Only A Cat Of A Different Coat, That's All The Truth I Know. In A Coat Of Gold Or A Coat Of Red, A Lion Still Has Claws. And, Mine Are As Long And Sharp, My Lord As Long And Sharp As Yours. And So He Spoke, And So He Spoke, That Lord Of Castamere, But Now The Rains Weep O'er His Hall, With No One There To Hear. Yes, Now The Rains Weep O'er His Hall, And Not A Soul To Hear.

He Did Not Know Which Was More Painful, The Waking Or The Sleeping. When He Slept, He Dreamed: Dark Disturbing Dreams Of Blood And Broken Promises. When He Woke, There Was Nothing To Do But Think, And His Waking Thoughts Were Worse Than Nightmares.

My Dreams Are The Usual Incoherent Nonsense. Like Most Writers, At Some Point In My Career I Thought, Well, I Have These Great Dreams But I Always Forget Them In The Morning So I’ll Leave A Pad On My Bedside Table So I Can Write It Down, And Then You Have Some Incredible Dream And You Write It Down And The Next Morning You Wake Up And You’ve Written ‘purple Socks’.

There Are Two Kinds Of Writers. There Are Architects And Gardeners. The Architects Do Blueprints Before They Drive The First Nail. The Gardeners Just Dig A Hole And Plant The Seed And See What Comes Up.

They Are Children, Sansa Thought. They Are Silly Little Girls, Even Elinor. They’ve Never Seen A Battle, They’ve Never Seen A Man Die, They Know Nothing. Their Dreams Were Full Of Songs And Stories, The Way Hers Had Been Before Joffrey Cut Her Fathers Head Off. Sansa Pitied Them. Sansa Envied Them.

There Are Ghosts Everywhere," Ser Jorah Said Softly. "we Carry Them With Us Wherever We Go.

If The Novels Are Still Being Read In 50 Years, No One Is Ever Going To Say: 'what's Great About That Sixth Book Is That He Met His Deadline!' It Will Be About How The Whole Thing Stands Up.

It Was Astonishing To See How Angry Cersei Could Wax Over Accusations She Knew Perfectly Well To Be True.

A Crown Should Not Sit Easy On The Head.

There Is No Creature On Earth Half So Terrifying As A Truly Just Man.

The Man Who Fears Losing Has Already Lost.

There Was An Agelessness About Him, A Stillness; On Roose Bolton's Face, Rage And Joy Looked Much The Same.

There Is Only One God And His Name Is Death. And There Is Only One Thing We Say To Death: “not Today.

Why Do The Gods Make Kings And Queens If Not To Protect The Ones Who Can't Protect Themselves?

Ned Was Clad In A White Linen Doublet With The Direwolf Of Stark On The Breast; His Black Wool Cloak Was Fastened At The Collar By His Silver Hand Of Office. Black And White And Grey, All The Shades Of Truth.

Black And White

Much As I Admire Tolkien, I Once Again Always Felt Like Gandalf Should Have Stayed Dead. That Was Such An Incredible Sequence In Fellowship Of The Ring When He Faces The Balrog On The Khazad-dûm And He Falls Into The Gulf, And His Last Words Are, "fly, You Fools." What Power That Had, How That Grabbed Me. And Then He Comes Back As Gandalf The White, And If Anything He's Sort Of Improved. I Never Liked Gandalf The White As Much As Gandalf The Grey, And I Never Liked Him Coming Back. I Think It Would Have Been An Even Stronger Story If Tolkien Had Left Him Dead.

I Could Have Written A Story About A Well-adjusted Family. Ned Stark Comes Down To King’s Landing And Takes Over And Solves All Their Problems. Would That Have Been As Exciting?

I Am The Blood Of The Dragon. Do Not Presume To Teach Me Lessons.

There Are Some Examples Of Medieval Kings Who Were Terrible Human Beings But Were Nevertheless Good Kings.

One Night, In His Cups, He Drank A Jar Of Wildfire, After Telling His Friends It Would Transform Him Into A Dragon, But The Gods Were Kind And It Transformed Him Into A Corpse.

A Man Agrees With God As A Raindrop Agrees With The Storm

Tyrion: My Gentle Sister Seems To Have Mistaken Me For Ned Stark. Bronn: I Hear He Was Taller. Tyrion: Not After Joff Took Off His Head.

We Will Fight A Battle, And Then We Will Rest. Alive Or Dead, We'll Rest." - Jon Snow

I Was A Journalism Major, And I Would Take Creative Writing Classes As Part Of That, But I Would Also Look For Opportunities To Write Stories For Some Of My Other Classes. So For My Course In Scandinavian History, I Asked If I Could Write Historical Fiction Instead Of Term Papers. Sometimes They’d Say Yes.

As Daenerys Targaryen Rose To Her Feet, Her Black Hissed, Pale Smoke Venting From Its Mouth And Nostrils. The Other Two Pulled Away From Her Breasts And Added Their Voices To The Call, Translucent Wings Unfolding And Stirring The Air, And For The First Time In Hundreds Of Years, The Night Came Alive With The Music Of Dragons.

I Want To Make My Kingdom Beautiful, To Fill It With Fat Men And Pretty Maids And Laughing Children. I Want My People To Smile When They See Me Ride By, The Way Viserys Said They Smiled For My Father. (daenerys)

This Is The Bravo’s Dance, The Water Dance, Swift And Sudden. All Men Are Made Of Water, Do You Know This? When You Pierce Them, The Water Leaks Out And They Die.

Not Everyone Who Spoke You Friendly Was Really Your Friend." - Arya

And All Was Black And Still, And Black And Cold, And Black And Dead, And Black.

I Bet This Is A Brothel," She Whispered To Gendry. "you Don't Even Know What A Brothel Is." "i Do So," She Insisted. "it's Like An Inn, With Girls.

Once, I Cut Off A Man's Head, But He Did Not Know It Until He Tried To Brush His Hair. Then It Fell Off.

What Do We Say To The Lord Of Death?" "not Today.

I Don't Ever Want T' Leave This Cave, Jon Snow. Not Ever

In Order To Get Inside Their Skin, I Have To Identify With Them. That Includes Even The Ones Who Are Complete Bastards, Nasty, Twisted, Deeply Flawed Human Beings With Serious Psychological Problems. Even Them. When I Get Inside Their Skin And Look Out Through Their Eyes, I Have To Feel A Certain - If Not Sympathy, Certainly Empathy For Them. I Have To Try To Perceive The World As They Do, And That Creates A Certain Amount Of Affection.

The Most Important Thing For Any Aspiring Writer, Is To Read! And Not Just The Sort Of Thing You're Trying To Write, Be That Fantasy, Sf, Comic Books, Whatever. You Need To Read Everything.

She Might Have Wept Then, Had Not The Sky Begun To Do It For Her.

If I Could Wish The Kingslayer Back In Chains I Would. You Freed Him Without My Knowledge Or Consent... But What You Did, I Know You Did For Love. For Arya And Sansa, And Out Of Grief For Bran And Rickon. Love’s Not Always Wise, I’ve Learned. It Can Lead Us To Great Folly, But We Follow Our Hearts... Wherever They Take Us. Don’t We, Mother?

How Much Can A Crown Be Worth, When A Crow Can Dine Upon A King?

I Know Who's Going To Be On The Throne [in The Gameof Thrones], At The End, So I Better Not Say. But, There Will Be A Few People Sitting On It, Before The End.

Why Do Our Dreams Become So Much Smaller When They Finally Come True?

Some Truths Did Not Bear Saying, And Some Lies Were Necessary.

Swift As A Deer. Quiet As A Shadow. Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords. Quick As A Snake. Calm As Still Water.

Light Our Fire And Protect Us From The Dark, Blah Blah, Light Our Way And Keep Us Toasty Warm, The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors, Save Us From The Scary Things, And Blah Blah Blah Some More.

You Could Make A Poultice Out Of Mud To Cool A Fever. You Could Plant Seeds In Mud And Grow A Crop To Feed Your Children. Mud Would Nourish You, Where Fire Would Only Consume You, But Fools And Children And Young Girls Would Choose Fire Every Time.

Needle Was Robb And Bran And Rickon, Her Mother And Her Father, Even Sansa. Needle Was Winterfell's Grey Walls, And The Laughter Of Its People. Needle Was The Summer Snows, Old Nan's Stories, The Heart Tree With Its Red Leaves And Scary Face, The Warm Earthy Smell Of The Glass Gardens, The Sound Of The North Wind Rattling The Shutters Of Her Room. Needle Was Jon Snow's Smile. He Used To Mess My Hair And Call Me "little Sister," She Remembered, And Suddenly There Were Tears In Her Eyes.

It Was A Cruel Fate, Yet Not So Cruel As Mago's Will Be. I Promise You That, By The Old Gods And The New, By The Lamb God And The Horse God And Every God That Lives. I Swear By The Mother Of Mountains And The Womb Of The World. Before I Am Done With Them, Mago And Ko Jhaqo Will Plead For The Mercy They Showed Eroeh.

A Man Does Not Need To Be A Wizard To Know Truth From Falsehood, Not If He Has Eyes. You Need Only Learn To Read A Face. Look At The Eyes. The Mouth. The Muscles Here, At The Corners Of The Jaw, And Here, Where The Neck Joins The Shoulders.

Pyp Had Stabbed A Turnip With His Knife. "the Night Is Dark And Full Of Turnips," He Announced In A Solemn Voice. "let Us All Pray For Venison, My Children, With Some Onions And A Bit Of Tasty Gravy.

I Have Touched More Men That I Can Count. Some With My Lips, More With My Axe.

Who Do You Think Our Champion Will Be Today? Have You Seen Mace Tyrell's Boy? The Knight Of Flowers, They Call Him. Now There's A Son Any Man Would Be Proud To Own To. Last Tourney, He Dumped The Kingslayer On His Golden Rump, You Ought To Have Seen The Look On Cersei's Face. I Laughed Till My Sides Hurt.

I’d Be Anonymous. That’s What I’d Do Differently.

His Snores Sounded Like Ducks Mating.

I Can See A Scene In My Head, And When I Try To Get It Down In Words On Paper, The Words Are Clunky; The Scene Is Not Coming Across Right. So Frustrating. And There Are Days Where It Keeps Flowing. Open The Floodgates, And There It Is. Pages And Pages Coming. Where The Hell Does This All Come From? I Don't Know.

All Fiction Has To Have A Certain Amount Of Truth In It To Be Powerful.

I Always Give My Students Exercises Where They Really Have To Open A Vein And Bleed All Over The Paper And That's The Way You Get The Important Characters. Sooner Or Later Every Writer Worth Reading Writes A Story His Mother Wouldn't Read And Having To Get That Stuff Out Is Part Of One's Growth As A Writer.

Only A Fool Humbles Himself When The World Is So Full Of Men Eager To Do That Job For Him. (theon Greyjoy)

Great Wrongs Have Been Done You, But The Past Is Dust. The Future May Yet Be Won.

A Man Of The Night's Watch Lives His Life For The Realm. Not For A King, Nor A Lord, Nor The Honor Of This House Or That House, Neither For Gold Nor Glory Nor A Woman's Love, But For The Realm, And All The People In It. A Man Of The Night's Watch Takes No Wife And Fathers No Sons. Our Wife Is Duty. Our Mistress Is Honor. And You Are The Only Sons We Shall Ever Know.

A Lord Must Learn That Sometimes Words Can Accomplish What Swords Cannot.

You Always Try To Do Your Own Thing. One Of The Things I Wanted To Do Was To Write A Book That Combines Some Of The Best Traits Of Contemporary Fantasy With Some Of The Traits Of The Historical Novel.

Historical Novels

He Pushed Himself To His Feet. “don’t Lie, Sansa. I Am Malformed, Scarred, And Small, But…” She Could See Him Groping “…abed, When The Candles Are Blown Out, I Am Made No Worse Than Other Men. In The Dark, I Am The Knight Of Flowers.” He Took A Draught Of Wine. “i Am Generous. Loyal To Those Who Are Loyal To Me. I’ve Proven I’m No Craven. And I Am Cleverer Than Most, Surely Wits Count For Something. I Can Even Be Kind. Kindness Is Not A Habit With Us Lannisters, I Fear, But I Know I Have Some Somewhere. I Could Be… I Could Be Good To You.

Noseless And Handless, The Lannister Boys.

Jon Snow: I'm Not Afraid To Die. Mormont: Nor Life, I Hope.

You Mistake Patience For Forbearance.

For The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors.

No Man Threatens His Grace In The Presence Of The Kingsguard.” Tyrion Lannister Raised An Eyebrow. “i Am Not Threatening The King, Ser, I Am Educating My Nephew. Bronn, Timett, The Next Time Ser Boros Opens His Mouth, Kill Him.” The Dwarf Smiled. “now That Was A Threat, Ser. See The Difference?

A Hound Will Die For You, But Never Lie To You. And He'll Look You Straight In The Face.

I Wanted To Write A Big Novel, Something Epic In Scale.

Ruling Is Hard. This Was Maybe My Answer To Tolkien, Whom, As Much As I Admire Him, I Do Quibble With. Lord Of The Rings Had A Very Medieval Philosophy: That If The King Was A Good Man, The Land Would Prosper. We Look At Real History And It's Not That Simple... Real-life Kings Had Real-life Problems To Deal With... My People Who Are Trying To Rule Don't Have An Easy Time Of It. Just Having Good Intentions Doesn't Make You A Wise King.

The Man Who Passes The Sentence Should Swing The Sword. If You Would Take A Man's Life, You Owe It To Him To Look Into His Eyes And Hear His Final Words. And If You Cannot Bear To Do That, Then Perhaps The Man Does Not Deserve To Die.

I Heard Of A Man Who Had A Razor Made Of Valyrian Steel. He Cut His Head Off Trying To Shave.

In A Room Sit Three Great Men, A King, A Priest, And A Rich Man With His Gold. Between Them Stands A Sellsword, A Little Man Of Common Birth And No Great Mind. Each Of The Great Ones Bids Him Slay The Other Two. ‘do It,’ Says The King, ‘for I Am Your Lawful Ruler.’ ‘do It,’ Says The Priest, ‘for I Command You In The Names Of The Gods.’ ‘do It,’ Says The Rich Man, ‘and All This Gold Shall Be Yours.’ So Tell Me—who Lives And Who Dies?

Knights Die In Battle,” Catelyn Reminded Her. Brienne Looked At Her With Those Blue And Beautiful Eyes. “as Ladies Die In Childbed. No One Sings Songs About Them.

Her Lord Father Had Taught Her Never To Steal, But It Was Growing Harder To Remember Why.

Woman? Is That Meant To Insult Me? I Would Return The Slap, If I Took You For A Man. - Daenerys Targaryen

Anger Was Better Than Tears, Better Than Grief, Better Than Guilt.

She Had Never Loved Him So Much As She Did In That Instant.

Sooner Would Be Better Than Later, And Now Would Be Better Than Sooner." - Tyrion

We Know Truth For The Cruel Instrument It Is. Beauty Is Infinitely Preferable To Truth.

They Say Night's Beauties Fade At Dawn, And The Children Of Wine Are Oft Disowned In The Morning Light.

Even The Sky Was Grey. Grey And Grey And Greyer. The Whole World Grey, Everywhere You Look, Everything Grey Except The Eyes Of The Bride. The Eyes Of The Bride Were Brown. Big And Brown And Full Of Fear.

And I Tell You Truly, Danaerys, There Is No Man In All The World Who Will Ever Be Half So True To You As Me.

The Lord Of Light In His Wisdom Made Us Male And Female, Two Parts Of A Greater Whole. In Our Joining There Is Power. Power To Make Life. Power To Make Light. Power To Cast Shadows.

'rome' Was One Of My Favourite Shows, And I Wish Hbo Had Given It Three More Seasons 'cause I Would Have Loved To Continue Watching It.

I Like Dogs Better Than Knights. A Hound Will Die For You, But Never Lie To You. And He'll Look You Straight In The Face. He Cupped Her Under The Jaw, Raising Her Chin, His Fingers Pinchingher Painfully. And That's More Than Little Birds Can Do, Isn't It? I Never Got My Song.

Give Me Priests Who Are Fat And Corrupt And Cynical,(...) The Sort Who Like To Sit On Soft Satin Cushions, Nibble Sweetmeats, And Diddle Little Boys. It's The Ones Who Believe In Gods Who Make The Trouble. (tyrion)

A Mad Man Sees What He Sees.

Writing Is Like Sausage Making In My View; You'll All Be Happier In The End If You Just Eat The Final Product Without Knowing What's Gone Into It.

She Should Be On A Hill Somewhere, Under A Fruit Tree, With The Sun And Clouds Above Her And The Rain To Wash Her Clean.

That Little Touch Is Not In The Books, But I Wish It Had Been In The Books Because It Was A Great Addition.

Black Moleskin Gloves Covered His Hands; The Right Because It Was Burned, The Left Because A Man Felt Half A Fool Wearing Only One Glove.

His Eyes Were Open Wounds Beneath His Heavy Brows, A Blue As Dark As The Sea By Night.

Just Where Do You Think You Are Going, Arya?' The Septa Demanded. Arya Glared At Her. 'i Have To Go Shoe A Horse,' She Said Sweetly Taking A Brief Satisfaction In The Shock On The Septa's Face.

What Could He Have Done, One Man Against So Many?" He Could Have Tried, Brienne Thought.

The Maester Smiled...hush Now, Child, I'm Much Older Than You. I Can....die As I Please.

Was There Ever A War Where Only One Side Bled?

Love Is Sweet, Dearest Ned, But It Cannot Change A Man's Nature. -- Lyanna

I Will Take What Is Mine With Fire And Blood.

An Admiral Without Ships, A Hand Without Fingers, In Service Of A King Without A Throne. Is This A Knight Who Comes Before Us, Or The Answer To A Child's Riddle?

I've Always Taken That As My Guiding Principle And The Rest Is Just Set Dressing. You Can Have Dragons In It, Or Aliens And Starships, Or A Western About A Gunslinger, Or Even Literary Fiction, And Ultimately You're Still Writing About The Human Heart In Conflict With Itself.

A Lot Of Fantasy Names Are Too Much. They’re Too Difficult To Pronounce. I Wanted The Flavour Of Medieval England. I Took Actual Names We Still Use Today, Like ‘robert’, And In Some Case I Tweaked Them A Little Bit. I Made ‘edward’ Into ‘eddard’. If You Look Back At Medieval Times, No One Knew How To Spell Their Own Names. There Are A Lot Of Variations That We’ve Lost.

There Are No Happy Endings.

Ser Barristan Loves His Honor, Grand Maester Pycelle Loves His Office, And Littlefinger Loves Littlefinger.

The Man Who Never Reads Lives Only One.

The Snow Drifted Down And Down, All In Ghostly Silence, And Lay Thick And Unbroken On The Ground. It Was A Place Of Whites And Blacks And Greys. White Towers And White Snow And White Statues, Black Shadows And Black Trees, The Dark Grey Sky Above. A Pure World, Sansa Thought. I Do Not Belong Here. Yet She Stepped Out All The Same.

They Were Never My Pack, Not Even Hot Pie And Gendry. I Was Stupid To Think So, Just A Stupid Little Girl, And No Wolf At All.

Perhaps I Cannot Make My People Good, She Told Herself, But I Should At Least Try To Make Them A Little Less Bad.

We're All Just Songs In The End. If We Are Lucky.

You'll Find Truth In Your Looking Glass, Not On The Tongues Of Men.

The Things We Love Destroy Us Every Time, Lad. Remember That.

Catelyn Had Never Liked This Godswood. She Had Been Born A Tully, At Riverrun Far To The South, On The Red Fork Of The Trident. The Godswood There Was A Garden, Bright And Airy, Where Tall Redwoods Spread Dappled Shadows Across Tinkling Streams, Birds Sang From Hidden Nests, And The Air Was Spicy With The Scent Of Flowers.

She Had Killed Him With A Whisper, And She Would Kill Two More Before She Was Through. I’m The Ghost In Harrenhal, She Thought. And That Night, There Was One Less Name To Hate.

A Harp Can Be A Dangerous As A Sword, In The Right Hands.

Kind? How Boring That Would Be. I Aspire To Be Wicked.

A Woman's Life Is Nine Parts Mess To One Part Magic, You'll Learn That Soon Enough...and The Parts That Look Like Magic Turn Out To Be The Messiest Of All.

If You Need Help Bark Like A Dog." - Gendry. "that's Stupid. If I Need Help I'll Shout Help." - Arya

A Bruise Is A Lesson... And Each Lesson Makes Us Better.

A Lannister Always Pays His Debts.

The Greatest Fools Are Ofttimes More Clever Than The Men Who Laugh At Them.

I Was Born In Bayonne, New Jersey. I Grew Up In The Projects. I Never Went Anywhere. But I Have Lived A Thousand Lives And I’ve Loved A Thousand Loves. I’ve Walked On Distant Worlds And Seen The End Of Time. Because I Read.

I Do Play All The Characters, When I Write Them, One After Another. If They Actually Had To Film Me, The Only One I Could Play Would Be Samwell Tarly Or Hot Pie.

You're Mine," She Whispered. "mine, As I'm Yours. And If We Die, We Die. All Men Must Die, Jon Snow. But First, We'll Live.

All My Life Men Like You've Sneered At Me, And All My Life I've Been Knocking Men Like You Into The Dust.

It Was A Story Called ‘the Hero’ Which I Sold To Galaxy Magazine In 1970, For $94.

I Swear To You, Sitting A Throne Is A Thousand Times Harder Than Winning One.

Tyrion Let The Eunuch Help Him Mount. "lord Varys," He Said From The Saddle, "sometimes I Feel As Though You Are The Best Friend I Have In King's Landing And Sometimes I Feel You Are My Worst Enemy." "how Odd. I Think Quite The Same Of You.

Trending Author

Hesketh Pearson

W. E. B. Du Bois

Craig T. Nelson

Category