No one will be alive by the last book. In fact, they all die in the fifth. The sixth book will be just a thousand-page description of snow blowing across the graves.

Has my tale turned you speechless? Come, curse me or kiss me or call me a liar. Something.

They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man’s laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death,” Ned said evenly. “Perhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor.

Truly, sister, you were born to be a widow. (Tyrion to Cersei)

It was astonishing to see how angry Cersei could wax over accusations she knew perfectly well to be true.

I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.

I could have written a story about a well-adjusted family. Ned Stark comes down to King’s Landing and takes over and solves all their problems. Would that have been as exciting?