Quotes from George R.R. Martin

High, low, overhand, he rained down steel upon her. Left, right, backslash, swinging so hard that sparks flew when the swords came together, upswing, sideslash, overhand, always attacking, moving into her, step and slide, strike and step, step and strike, hacking, slashing, faster, faster, faster . . .until, breathless, he stepped back and let the point of the sword fall to the ground, giving her a moment of respite. "Not half bad," he acknowledged. "For a wench.

We are walking on a bridge of ice with an abyss on either side.

Lonely and lovely and lethal, Jon Snow reflected, and I might have had her. Her, and Winterfell, and my lord father's name. Instead he had chosen a black cloak and a wall of ice. Instead he had chosen honor. A bastard's sort of honor.

No doubt he was smiling. He smiled a lot, as if the world were a secret joke that only he was clever enough to understand.

Ten years a wold, and you land here and think to prince about the islands, but you know nothing and no one. Why should men fight and die for you?'' ''I am their lawful prince,'' Theon said stiffly. ''By the laws of the green lands, you might be. But we make our own laws here, or have you forgotten?

Family, Duty, Honor,

Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. As the dead men reached the top of the Wall he sent them down to die again.

the faint smell of corruption clung to it like a woman's perfume.

The Wall was like that. Sometimes he could almost forget that it was there, the way you forgot about the sky or the earth underfoot, but there were other times when it seemed as if there was nothing else in the world.

No man is free. Only children and fools think elsewise.

When the spirit stepped out of the open tomb, pale white and moaning for blood, Sansa ran shrieking for the stairs, and Bran wrapped himself around Robb's leg, sobbing. Arya stood her ground and gave the spirit a punch. It was only Jon, covered with flour. "You stupid," she told him, "you scared the baby," but Jon and Robb just laughed and laughed, and pretty soon Bran and Arya were laughing too.

Theon Greyjoy had once commented that Hodor did not know much, but no one could doubt that he knew his name. Old Nan had cackled like a hen when Bran told her that, and confessed that Hodor's real name was Walder. No one knew where "Hodor" had come from, she said, but when he started saying it, they started calling him by it. It was the only word he had.

Not all risks lead to ruin.

Those pissing contests are how lords judge one another's strength, and woe to any man who shows his weakness. A woman must needs piss twice as hard, if she hopes to rule. And

She was no maid; if she could look on the grey wall's scenes of slaughter, why should she avert her eyes from the sight of men and women giving pleasure to one another?

The red priestess shuddered. Blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. The fire was inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, transforming her. Shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin, insistent as a lover's hand.

Kings have no friends,' Stannis said bluntly, 'only subjects and enemies.' 'And brothers,' a cheerful voice called out.

Bad and worse and worst makes a beggar's choice.

For all her Targaryen blood, Dany had not the least idea of how to train a dragon.

The comic book is not the book. the graphic novel is not the novel. The same, of course, is true of films and television. When we move a story from one medium to another, no matter how faithful we attempt to be, some changes are inevitable. Each medium has its own demands, own restrictions, its own way of telling a story.

I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other that your shit don't stink.

Let them mock, Bran thought. No one mocked him in his bedchamber, but he would not live his life in bed.

Small men curse what they cannot understand.

El corazón miente y la mente engaña, pero los ojos ven. Mira con los ojos. Escucha con los oídos. Saborea con la boca. Huele con la nariz. Siente con la piel. Y no pienses hasta después, y así sabrás la verdad. —Syrio Forel