A man of the Night's Watch lives his life for the realm. Not for a king, nor a lord, nor the honor of this house or that house, neither for gold nor glory nor a woman's love, but for the realm, and all the people in it. A man of the Night's Watch takes no wife and fathers no sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor. And you are the only sons we shall ever know.
George R. R. MartinThey say it grows so cold up here in winter that a manโs laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death,โ Ned said evenly. โPerhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor.
George R. R. MartinShow me the path I must walk and do not let me stumble in the dark places that lie ahead.
George R. R. MartinI was a novelist first. But in the mid 80s, I did work in television for ten years. And yes, that was frequently the reaction to my scripts. People would say, you know, George, this is great. We love it, a terrific script, but it would cost five times our budget to shoot this.
George R. R. MartinThe best writing advice I had was [in] โHeinleinโs Rules for Writersโ by (American science fiction author) Robert A. Heinlein. His first rule is that you must write, and I was already doing that, but his second rule is, โYou must finish what you write,โ and that had a big impact on me.
George R. R. Martin