Most people were startled to find out there were books that preceded Game Of Thrones. I'm a case of working forty years to be an overnight success.

Jon: Have you seen the wall? | Sam: I'm fat, not blind.

You don't just have people who wake up in the morning and say, "What evil things can I do today, because I'm Mr. Evil?" People do things for what they think are justified reasons. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and you have to keep that in mind. If you read a lot of history, as I do, even the worst and most monstrous people thought they were the good guys. We're all very tangled knots.

What is dead may never die, but rises again, stronger and harder.

If a man paints a target on his chest, he should expect that sooner or later someone will loose an arrow on him.

You are grown so very great now, yet the higher a man climbs the farther he has to fall.

I'm not a writer who's preaching some particular philosophy or something but the big questions do concern me and I like to make my readers think and debate and argue with each other and look at some aspect of the world or some act of governance or war or power and have an angle they haven't considered before, and that's something I strive for and hopefully have accomplished.