Free folk don't follow names, or little cloth animals sewn on a tunic," the King-Beyond-the-Wall had told him. "They won't dance for coins, they don't care how your style yourself or what that chain of office means or who your grandsire was. They follow strength. They follow the man.

The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.

I never wanted to see half the things I've seen, and I've never seen half the things I wanted to. I don't think wanting comes into it. You'd best go all the same.

In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.

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

As we sin, so do we suffer

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