A hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he'll look you straight in the face.

I think my very earliest stories were all intellectual exercises and I was writing from experiences I had never had about characters who were about an inch deep.

Writing is like sausage making in my view; you'll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what's gone into it.

You should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care.

Catelyn had never liked this godswood. She had been born a Tully, at Riverrun far to the south, on the Red Fork of the Trident. The godswood there was a garden, bright and airy, where tall redwoods spread dappled shadows across tinkling streams, birds sang from hidden nests, and the air was spicy with the scent of flowers.

But Tolkien doesn't ask the question: What was Aragorn's tax policy?

Man wants to be the king o' the rabbits, he best wear a pair o' floppy ears.