I have touched more men that I can count. Some with my lips, more with my axe.

I think my very earliest stories were all intellectual exercises and I was writing from experiences I had never had about characters who were about an inch deep.

It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown...it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe... and mine again as she was meant to be. I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown?

There are no happy endings.

If the day comes when you would find me again, give that coin to any man from Braavos, and say these words to him--valar morghulis.

I've been very lucky. There were times when I was afraid I would never sell another book, but I never doubted I'd write another book.

She should be on a hill somewhere, under a fruit tree, with the sun and clouds above her and the rain to wash her clean.