His sister liked to think of herself as Lord Tywin with teats, but she was wrong. Their father had been as relentless and implacable as a glacier, where Cercei was all wildfire, especially when thwarted.

All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not to say fiction can't be thoughtful, or present some interesting or provocative ideas to make us think. But if you want to present an intellectual argument, nonfiction is a better tool. You can drive a nail with a shoe but a hammer is a better tool for that. But fiction is about emotional resonance, about making us feel things on a primal and visceral level.

Of all the bright cruel lies they tell you, the cruelest is the one called love.

Mother, I want to see him fly!

A man who fights for coin is loyal only to his purse.

All men are fools, if truth be told, but the ones in motley are more amusing than ones with crowns.

If the day comes when you would find me again, give that coin to any man from Braavos, and say these words to him--valar morghulis.