History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.

What the King dreams, the Hand builds.

The true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves.

A man who sees nothing has no use for his eyes,” the Mountain declared. “Cut them out and give them to your next outrider. Tell him you hope that four eyes might see better than two . . . and if not, the man after him will have six.

Jon Snow: I'm not afraid to die. Mormont: Nor life, I hope.

When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly, he announces. When I woke, I couldn't... or so the maester said. But what if he lied? What do you mean? Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower? No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap. There is the window. Leap. What do you want? The world.

I have always regarded historical fiction and fantasy as sisters under the skin, two genres separated at birth.