I will teach them what it means to put a lion in a cage, Cersei thought.

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.

Some gave me soft words and some blunt, some made excuses, some promises, some only lied. In the end words are just wind.

In the world as I have seen it, no man grows rich by kindness.

Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself ... swore to myself ... that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies ... now I can't even tell one from the other.

The most important thing for any aspiring writer, is to read! And not just the sort of thing you're trying to write, be that fantasy, SF, comic books, whatever. You need to read everything.

You are the blood of the dragon. You can make a hat.