Quotes from George R.R. Martin

Look around you, and take a good whiff. They're all liars here … and every one better than you.

White is for Starks. I'll drink red like a good Lannister.

Sorcery was a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it.

But peasant's pride is lordling's shame.

Even the bravest men fear death and maiming

Some would fight for any cause, some for none at all.

Keep friends at your back and foes where you can see them.

To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.

Why, that is why the gods made whores for imps like me.

Perhaps he did not think himself worthy of the King's Tower, or perhaps he did not care. That was his mistake, the false humility of youth that is itself a sort of pride. It was never wise for a ruler to eschew the trappings of power, for power itself flows in no small measure from such trappings.

All around, the sea was full of ships. Some were burning, some were sinking, some had been smashed to splinters.

Sometimes it seemed as though he'd thumped his head on half the doors in Westeros, not to mention every beam in every inn from Dorne up to the Neck.

I am a creature of grief and dust and utter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.

I am sorry for your loss as well, Joffrey," the dwarf said. "What loss?" "Your royal father? A large fierce man with a black beard; you'll recall him if you try. He was king before you." "Oh, him. Yes it was very sad, a boar killed him." "Is that what 'they' say, Your Grace?

She stalked off into the trees, wishing she could just saddle her horse and ride home. She was a good horse, a chestnut mare with a white blaze on her forehead. She could gallop off and never see any of them, unless she wanted to. Only then she'd have no one to scout ahead of her, or watch behind, or stand guard while she napped, and when the gold cloaks caught her, she's be all alone. It was safer to stay with Yoren and the others.

She is of the north. She deserves better than a butcher.

Things can change quickly in the game of thrones. Words are wind, and the wind is always blowing at the Wall.

This was a pain that did not touch the body, a pain that did not race along the nerve paths, a pain that filled the mind so completely and so shatteringly that not even the smallest part of you was free to think or plan or meditate. The pain was you, and you were the pain. There was nothing to dissociate from, no cool sanctum of thought where you might retreat. (from The Glass Flower)

A man sees. A man hears. A man knows.

Evil thoughts come free

If it comes to killing, tell Ser Jacelyn I won't have it done in front of Tommen." Tyrion donned a heavy cloak of dark brown wool. "My nephew is tender-hearted." "Are you certain he's a Lannister?

My enemies are everywhere, and my friends are fools.

This is an evil dream, she thought. But if she were dreaming, why did it hurt so much? She tried to ask the shadows, but they did not answer. Perhaps they did not hear her. Perhaps they were not real.

In his youth, Jon Connington had shared the disdain most knights had for bowmen, but he had grown wiser in exile.