Quotes from George R.R. Martin

If you want to lead, learn how to follow.

the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man's life must be done beneath the open sky.

My uncle always said that it was the sword in a man's hand that determined his wroth, not the one between his legs. - Arianne

Even now, he did not know if he was doing the honorable thing. The southron had it easier. They had their septons to talk to, someone to tell them the gods will and help sort out right from wrong. But, the Starks worshiped the old gods, the nameless gods, the nameless gods, and if the heart trees heard, they did not speak.

All men must die. We are but death's instruments, not death himself.

The fire that burns against the cold.

Mud would nourish you, where fire would only consume you, but fools and children and young girls would choose fire every time.

My father went south once, to answer the summons of a king. He never came home again.

When dead men come hunting in the night, do you think it matters who sits the Iron Throne?

Better to live shamed than die proud.

Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you.

It took all her strength not to weep. She had been weeping too much of late. It was unseemly, she knew, but she could not seem to help herself; the tears would come, sometimes over a trifle, and nothing she did could hold them back.

Varys appeared not long after Lord Jacelyn had left. "Men are such faithless creatures," he said by way of greeting. Tyrion sighed. "Who's the traitor today?" The eunuch handed him a scroll. "So much villainy, it sings a sad song for our age. Did honor die with your fathers?

The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer.

The light that brings the dawn.

The pie is meant to be the marriage, and a true marriage has in it many sorts of things—joy and grief, pain and pleasure, love and lust and loyalty. So it is fitting that there be birds of many sorts. No man ever truly knows what a new wife will bring him.

Lady Tanda's daughter had surrendered her maidenhood to half a hundred shouting men behind a tanner's shop. The gold cloaks found her wandering naked on Sowbelly Row.

The time to speak of the cold is not when we are standing put in it.

Me fui al día siguiente... hacia un sitio donde un beso no fuera un crimen y un hombre pudiera vestir la capa que quisiera. -Mance Rayder

If there are gods, why is the world so full of pain and injustice?

If I had wings, I would want to fly too,

his page still remained to be filled between the gold lion on the crimson shield on top and the blank white shield at the bottom. Ser Gerold Hightower had begun his history, and Ser Barristan Selmy had continued it, but the rest Jaime Lannister would need to write for himself. He could write whatever he chose, henceforth. Whatever he chose . . .

Fear makes even strong me do things they might never do otherwise, and my father was never strong. - Arianne

Often, even with a deep cut, the blood came before the pain.