Cersei Lannister: I shall wear this as a badge of honor. Robert Barathon: Wear it in silence or I'll honor you again.

Life is not a song, sweetling. Someday you may learn that, to your sorrow.

She had never loved him so much as she did in that instant.

Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad.

I try to make the readers feel they've lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a friend is killed, you should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. If somebody dies and you just go get more popcorn, it's a superficial experience isn't it?

Better to mock the game than to play and lose.

I love you too, sweet sister. But you're a fool. A beautiful golden fool.