But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.
George R. R. MartinTime is different for a tree than for a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak.
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. MartinWoman? Is that meant to insult me? I would return the slap, if I took you for a man. - Daenerys Targaryen
George R. R. Martin...and when youโve known me longer, youโll learn that I mean everything I say.โ โEven the lies?โ โEspecially the lies.
George R. R. MartinI'm a strong believer in telling stories through a limited but very tight third person point of view. I have used other techniques during my career, like the first person or the omniscient view point, but I actually hate the omniscient viewpoint. None of us have an omniscient viewpoint; we are alone in the universe. We hear what we can hear... we are very limited. If a plane crashes behind you I would see it but you wouldn't. That's the way we perceive the world and I want to put my readers in the head of my characters.
George R. R. Martin