George R R Martin Quotes

the stars were horses made of fire, a great herd that galloped across the sky by night. As ~ George R R Martin

Hard hands and no sense of humor makes for a bad marriage. ~ George R R Martin

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. ~ George R R Martin

Say that with a sword in your hand, Frey," the small man snarled. "Or do you only fight with smears of shit ~ George R R Martin

Sometimes there is no happy choice, Sam, only one less grievous than the others. - Jon Snow ~ George R R Martin

First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end. ~ George R.R. Martin

Aye," the prince said. "I told the story to Ser Balon, but not all of it. As the children splashed in the pools, Daenerys watched from amongst the orange trees, and a realization came to her. She could not tell the highborn from the low. Naked, they were only children. All innocent, all vulnerable, all deserving of long life, love, protection. "There is your realm," she told her son and heir, "remember them, on everything you do." My own mother said those same words to me when I was old enough to leave the pools. It is an easy thing for a prince to call the spears, but in the end the children pay the price. For their sake, the wise prince will wage non war without good cause, nor any war he cannot hope to win.
"I am not blind, nor deaf. I know that you all believe me weak, frightened, feeble. Your father knew me better. Oberyn was ever the viper. Deadly, dangerous, unpredictable. No man dared tread on him. I was the grass. Pleasant, complaisant, sweet-smelling, swaying with every breeze. Who fears to walk upon the grass? But it is the grass that hides the viper from his enemies and shelters him until he strikes. Your father and I worked more closely than you know...but now he is gone. The question is, can I trust his daughters to serve me in his place? ~ George R.R. Martin

Knowledge is a Weapon, Jon. Arm yourself well before you ride forth to Battle. ~ George R R Martin

Let them say what they will. I can still fly.
- Earl Sanderson, Jr. ~ George R R Martin

Unfortunately in television, for whatever reason, fantasy became thought of as a kids' genre. ~ George R R Martin

Tell me who's won and I'll tell you what it means. ~ George R R Martin

That was when the dwarf turned to the eunuch and said, "I've killed my father," in the same tone a man might use to say, "I've stubbed my toe. ~ George R R Martin

Your father is fearless," Catelyn pointed out. "He is brave, but that is very different. ~ George R R Martin

In the Old Way, women might decorate themselves with ornaments bought with coin, but a warrior wore only the jewelry he took off the corpses of enemies slain by his own hand. Paying the iron price, it was called. ~ George R R Martin

There's a sweet sound," he said, slashing at the air. "Flap closer, Snow. I mean to make your feathers fly. ~ George R R Martin

There is power in a King's blood. ~ George R R Martin

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. ~ George R R Martin

When a wolf descends upon your flocks, all you gain by killing him is a short respite, for other wolves will come, ~ George R R Martin

If I look back I am lost. ~ George R R Martin

It fits," said Tolly Mune. "Sometimes I feel this ship is haunted." "This suggests why it is wiser to rely upon intellect rather than feelings, Portmaster. ~ George R R Martin

I am sorry for your loss." "I had a new hand made, of gold." He showed her. "Very nice. Will they make you a gold father too?" Lady Genna's voice was sharp. "Tywin was the loss I meant. ~ George R R Martin

Turtles have always been my sigil, I suppose. When I was a kid, growing up in Bayonne, NJ, I lived in a federal housing project, and we were not allowed to have a dog or cats. The only pets I could have were turtles. So, I had an entire toy castle filled with dime-store turtles. I gave them all names, and since they were living in a toy castle, I decided they were all knights and kingsand I made up stories about how they killed each other and betrayed each other and fought for the kingdom. So, Game of Thrones, actually began with turtles. I decided later to recast it with actual human beings. ~ George R R Martin

If only they were truly ants, wee could step on them and crush them. ~ George R R Martin

Seaworth had a lordly ring to it, but down deep he was still Davos of Flea Bottom, coming home to his city on its three high hills. He knew as much of ships and sails and shores as any man in the Seven Kingdoms, and had fought his share of desperate fights sword to sword on a wet deck. But to this sort of battle he came a maiden, nervous and afraid. Smugglers do not sound warhorns and raise banners. When they smell danger, they raise sail and run before the wind. ~ George R.R. Martin

Viserys could not sweep a stable with ten thousand brooms. ~ George R R Martin

And any man who must say 'I am the king' is no true king at all. ~ George R.R. Martin

Even a man who had survived a hundred battle can break in his hundred-and-first. ~ George R R Martin

It was the end of the world.
And we are going beyond it. ~ George R R Martin

And the stars in the night were the eyes of his wolves, and the wind itself was their song. ~ George R R Martin

The hardest part of any battle is just before, waiting for the carnage to begin. ~ George R.R. Martin

Tyrion Lannister was bundled in furs so thickly he looked like a very small bear ~ George R R Martin

A smile should be a servant, and come only when you call it. ~ George R R Martin

No, Your Grace. At the end a dragon hatches from an egg and devours all of the lions. ~ George R R Martin

Yet there was one problem: at the age of nine-and-ten, Laenor preferred the company of squires of his own age, and was said never to have known a woman intimately, nor to have any bastards. But to this, Grand Maester Mellos was said to have remarked, What of it? I am not fond of fish, but when fish is served, I eat it. ~ George R R Martin

Ser Loras lusts for glory as real men lust for women, the least the gods can do is grant him a death worthy of a song. ~ George R R Martin

The Night's Watch permitted the forest to come no closer than half a mile of the north face of the Wall. The thickets of ironwood and sentinel and oak that had once grown there had been harvested centuries ago, to create a broad swath of open ground through which no enemy could hope to pass unseen. ~ George R R Martin

Give the wilding an axe, why not?" He pointed out Mormont's weapon, a short-hafted battle-axe with gold scrollwork inlaid on the black steel blade. "He'll give it back, I vow. Buried in the Old Bear's skull, like as not. why not give him all our axes, and our swords as well? I mislike the way the clank and rattle as we ride. We'd travel faster without them, straight to hell's door. Does it rain in hell, I wonder? Perhaps Craster would like a nice hat instead."
Jon smiled. "He wants an axe. And wine as well."
"See, the Old Bear's clever. If we get the wildling well and truly drunk, perhaps he'll only cut off an ear when he tries to slay us with that axe. I have two ears but only one head. ~ George R R Martin

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. ~ George R R Martin

The choice is yours, brother. Live a thrall or die a king. Do you dare to fly? Unless you take the leap, you'll never know. - Euron Greyjoy ~ George R R Martin

She held Needle in her left hand, her sword hand, the candle in her right fist. ~ George R R Martin

You would wail for hours, and nothing would quiet you but a woman's teat." "Still true, as it happens. ~ George R R Martin

And all was black and still, and black and cold, and black and dead, and black. ~ George R R Martin

The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice ... ~ George R R Martin

Starks of Winterfell: a grey direwolf racing across an ice-white field. ~ George R R Martin

My mother raised me to be bold. If I do not go, I will spend the rest of my life wondering what might have happened if I had."
"If you do go, the rest of your life may be too short for wondering. - Asha & Rodrick ~ George R R Martin

Yet he could scarcely tell Lord Mormont that it was another man's sword he dreamt of ... "I want no courtesies either," Mormont said, ~ George R R Martin

When we speak of the morrow nothing is ever certain. ~ George R R Martin

Only the innocent know the peace of untroubled sleep. Confess sins, and you will sleep like a newborn babe. ~ George R R Martin

Many writers will get a contract by selling chapters and outlines or something like that. I wrote the entire novel, and when it was all finished, I would give it to my agent and say, 'Well, here's a novel; sell it if you can.' And they would do that, and it was good because I never had anyone looking over my shoulder. ~ George R R Martin

Small men oft feel a need to prove their courage with unseemly boasts," he declared. "I doubt if he could kill a duck."
Tyrion shrugged. "Fetch the duck. ~ George R R Martin

Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. ~ George R R Martin

A toad grows wings and thinks he's a bloody dragon. ~ George R R Martin

That brought the smile back to the old woman's face. "This one at least is honest," she announced, "but you, ser ... I have known a dozen Westerosi knights and a thousand adventurers of the same ilk, but none so pure as you would paint yourself. Men are beasts, selfish and brutal. However gentle the words, there are always darker motives underneath. I do not trust you, ser. ~ George R R Martin

Why ask for truth," Ser Barristan said softly, "if you close your ears to it? ~ George R R Martin

If? The word is when. ~ George R R Martin

If she pops out sons the way she pops in tarts, the Dreadfort will soon be overrun with Boltons. ~ George R R Martin

Would you rather die with honor intact or live with it besmirched? ~ George R R Martin

I sit on the damn iron seat when I must. Does that mean I don't have the same hungers as other men? A bit of wine now and again, a girl squealing in bed, the feel of a horse between my legs? Seven hells, Ned, I want to hit someone. ~ George R R Martin

Watch, the core of two thousand who'd gotten ~ George R R Martin

There was very little that Jaime took seriously. Tyrion knew that about his brother, and forgave it. During all the terrible long years of his childhood, only Jaime had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything. ~ George R R Martin

Mothers." The man made a word sound like a curse. "I think birthing does something to your minds. You are all mad. ~ George R R Martin

A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. ~ George R R Martin

I was with her when she died," Ned reminded the king. "She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father." He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. ~ George R R Martin

Rebellion makes for queer bedfellows. And none more queer than this fat man and me, ~ George R R Martin

So what will you do, m'lord, now that you're the Hand of the King?" Shae asked him as he cupped that warm sweet flesh. "Something Cersei will never expect," Tyrion murmured softly against her slender neck. "I'll do ... justice. ~ George R R Martin

Some allies are more dangerous than enemies. ~ George R R Martin

Beware," the woman in the red lacquer mask said. "Of whom?" "Of all. They shall come day and night to see the wonder that has been born again into the world, and when they see they shall lust. For dragons are fire made flesh, and fire is power. ~ George R R Martin

them? If they should come to some accord ~ George R R Martin

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. ~ George R R Martin

However bright a torch might burn it could never match the rising sun. ~ George R R Martin

You never knew Lyanna as well as I did Robert, you saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath ~ George R R Martin

My words lied.My eyes and my arm shouted out the truth,but you were not seeing. ~ George R R Martin

The pain was so huge he felt small and weak and helpless inside it, ~ George R R Martin

One day there would be Starks in Winterfell again, he told himself, and then he'd send for the Liddles and pay them back a hundredfold for every nut and berry. ~ George R R Martin

So do not waste my time. It is the most precious thing I have, time. It is the most precious thing any of us have. ~ George R R Martin

What was it Catelyn Stark had called them, that night at Bitterbridge? The knights of summer. And now it was autumn and they were falling like leaves ... ~ George R R Martin

The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler. Do you knows what that means?
No. Is it a riddle? ~ George R R Martin

I'd sooner drink a pint of piss than take the word of any Frey. ~ George R R Martin

Whatever happens, I thank you for your leal service. ~ George R R Martin

Girl or boy, we fight our battles. But the God's let us choose our weapons. ~ George R R Martin

The battle proved a victory - at least in part - and soon after, his grandfather finally died, and Ser Elmo became Lord of Riverrun. But he did not long enjoy his station; he died on the march forty-nine days later, leaving his young son, Ser Kermit, to succeed him. ~ George R R Martin

No, she wanted to shout to him, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don't you see! Don't you SEE? ~ George R R Martin

It takes courage to admit fear. ~ George R R Martin

Let him beg, it won't do him no good. ~ George R R Martin

Start trying to work out who deserves what, and before long you'll spend the rest of your days weeping for each and every person in the world. ~ George R R Martin

One man on the wall is worth ten beneath it. ~ George R R Martin

Ser Jorah was not a handsome man. He had a neck and shoulders like a bull, and coarse black hair covered his arms and chest so thickly that there was none left for his head. ~ George R R Martin

Noble words, but words were easy. Deeds were hard. - Brienne ~ George R R Martin

The thought made his belly heave again. Sam bent over the gunwale and retched, but not into the wind. He had gone to the right rail this time. He was getting good at retching. ~ George R R Martin

The man had a hand down between her legs, and he must have been hurting her there, because the woman started to moan, low in her throat. ~ George R R Martin

Be careful you don't cut yourself. The edges are sharp enough to shave with.'
'Girls don't shave', Arya said.
'Maybe they should. Have you ever seen the septa's legs? ~ George R R Martin

Sansa sat with her hands folded in her lap, watching with a strange fascination. She had never seen a man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran. It would be different if it had been Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself. The young man in the blue cloak was nothing to her, some stranger from the Vale of Arryn whose name she had forgotten as soon as she heard it. And now the world would forget his name too, Sansa realized; there would be no songs sung for him. That was sad. ~ George R R Martin

The others were far scattered, like leaves blown by the wild wind. ~ George R R Martin

His blood is bad. He needs to be leeched. The leeches suck away the bad blood, all the rage and pain. No man can think so full of anger. ~ George R R Martin

There are old sellswords and bold sellswords, but no old bold sellswords. ~ George R R Martin

Reading. That was the sport I was good at. ~ George R R Martin

Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm. ~ George R R Martin

I am the ghost in Harrenhal. ~ George R R Martin

Tell me where do whores go? ~ George R R Martin

Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams. ~ George R R Martin