They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle Earth.

But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.

There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

Perhaps I will die too, she told herself, and the thought did not seem so terrible to her. If she flung herself from the window, she could put an end to her suffering, and in the years to come the singers would write songs of her grief. Her body would lie on the stones below, broken and innocent, shaming all those who had betrayed her. Sansa went so far as to cross the bedchamber and throw open the shutters ... but then her courage left her, and she ran back to her bed, sobbing.

Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old.

It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.

I heard of a man who had a razor made of Valyrian steel. He cut his head off trying to shave.