George R. R. Martin Quotes

Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs." And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.

A harp can be a dangerous as a sword, in the right hands.

I always give my students exercises where they really have to open a vein and bleed all over the paper and that's the way you get the important characters. Sooner or later every writer worth reading writes a story his mother wouldn't read and having to get that stuff out is part of one's growth as a writer.

...and when you’ve known me longer, you’ll learn that I mean everything I say.” “Even the lies?” “Especially the lies.

I think life is a jape. Yours, mine, everyone's

I've always taken that as my guiding principle and the rest is just set dressing. You can have dragons in it, or aliens and starships, or a western about a gunslinger, or even literary fiction, and ultimately you're still writing about the human heart in conflict with itself.

History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.

You kill men for the wrongs they have done, not the wrongs that they may do someday.

The city?" Tyrion was lost. "What city would that be?" "King's Landing. I am sending you to court." It was the last thing Tyrion Lannister would ever have anticipated. He reached for his wine, considered for a moment as he sipped. "And what am I to do there?" "Rule," his father said curtly.

Folly and desperation are ofttimes hard to tell apart.

I do play all the characters, when I write them, one after another. If they actually had to film me, the only one I could play would be Samwell Tarly or Hot Pie.

I had an encyclopedia with a list of flags in the back, so I would look at all these flags of China and Liberia and England and Denmark and whatever, and I learned all the different flags and I tried to imagine what it would be like to be voyaging on some of these ships.

I am doing the right thing, he told himself, so why do I feel so bad?

Who do you think our champion will be today? Have you seen Mace Tyrell's boy? The Knight of Flowers, they call him. Now there's a son any man would be proud to own to. Last tourney, he dumped the Kingslayer on his golden rump, you ought to have seen the look on Cersei's face. I laughed till my sides hurt.

What do we say to the Lord of Death?" "Not today.

Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman? (wonders Lady Catelyn Stark)

If ice can burn, then love and hate can mate.

Will holding a secret in your heart make it any less true? If you never tell, never speak of it, will it become only a dream, less than a dream, a nightmare half-remembered? Oh, if only the gods would be so good. (Catelyn)

The only game. The game of thrones.

I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.

Nothing burns like the cold.

If he must be alone, he would make solitude his armor.

My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow.

Prince Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna, and thousands died for it.

Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

...Ned always said that the man who passes the sentence should swing the blade, though he never took any joy in the duty. But I would, oh, yes.

There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.

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

She remembered the godswood, drooping branches heavy with moisture, and the sound of her brother’s laughter as he chased her through piles of damp leaves.

When Maester Aemon heard him sing, he said his voice was honey poured over thunder.

The wildlings seemed to think Ygritte a great beauty because of her hair; red hair was rare among the free folk, and those who had it were said to be kissed by fire, which was supposed to be lucky.

I would choose freedom over comfort every time.

Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I'll sleep more easily by night.

Most people were startled to find out there were books that preceded Game Of Thrones. I'm a case of working forty years to be an overnight success.

I knew that, when writing a book, you're not constrained by a budget. You're not constrained by what you can do, in terms of the special effects technology. You're not limited to any particular running time.

Now I understand why King Stannis let the wildlings through the Wall. He means for us to eat them.

Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.

A fair bargain leaves both sides unhappy.

...spend my time warring and whoring, that's what I was made for.

There has never been a slave who did not choose to be a slave. Their choice may be between bondage and death, but the choice is always there.

I had written three books [Games of Throne], at that point, and each one of them was better than the other. At a certain point, as the books were doing well, I started getting interest from Hollywood, from various producers and studios who were initially interested in doing a feature film. I met with some of those people and I had phone conversations with some of those people, but I didn't see it being done as a feature film.

And all was black and still, and black and cold, and black and dead, and black.

'Rome' was one of my favourite shows, and I wish HBO had given it three more seasons 'cause I would have loved to continue watching it.

You can't hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn't mean it's useless.

We all need to be mocked from time to time, lest we take ourselves too seriously.

That little touch is not in the books, but I wish it had been in the books because it was a great addition.

There are no happy endings.

There is an empty place within me where my heart once was.