I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic.

And if I'm guilty of having gratuitous sex, then I'm also guilty of having gratuitous violence, and gratuitous feasting, and gratuitous description of clothes, and gratuitous heraldry, because very little of this is necessary to advance the plot. But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.

The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer.

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.

If you would wed, wed. If not, take your pleasure where you find it. There's little enough of it in this world." - Oberyn

What do we say to the Lord of Death?" "Not today.

She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honour, for love.