When Maester Aemon heard him sing, he said his voice was honey poured over thunder.

The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows.

So many vows … they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or another.

An awful lot of fantasy, and even some great fantasy, falls into the mistake of assuming that a good man will be a good king, that all that is necessary is to be a decent human being and when you're king everything will go swimmingly.

The Lord of Winterfell would always be a Stark

I’d be anonymous. That’s what I’d do differently.

Ideas are cheap. I have more ideas now than I could ever write up. To my mind, it's the execution that is all-important.