As Faulkner says, all of us have the capacity in us for great good and for great evil, for love but also for hate. I wanted to write those kinds of complex character in a fantasy, and not just have all the good people get together to fight the bad guy.

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

I've said in many interviews that I like my fiction to be unpredictable. I like there to be considerable suspense.

You make us look bad', complained Toad. 'You looked bad before I ever met you', Jon told him.

The old man laid a withered, spotted hand on his shoulder. "It hurts, boy," he said softly. "Oh, yes. Choosing . . . it has always hurt. And always will. I know.

She had killed him with a whisper, and she would kill two more before she was through. I’m the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate.

Ideas are cheap. I have more ideas now than I could ever write up. To my mind, it's the execution that is all-important.