One of the hardest parts of writing is writing from the gut or the heart or something like that rather than intellectually.

A lot of writing takes place in the subconscious, and it's bound to have an effect.

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.

Is it so far from madness to wisdom?" - Daenerys Targaryen

I'm fond of all my characters so every time one doesn't make the cut I'm a little disappointed although I understand it.

It all goes back and back," Tyrion thought, "to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads.

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.