George R R Martin Quotes & Sayings

You were wrong to love her, a voice whispered. You were wrong to leave her, a different voice insisted. — George R R Martin

Besides, his father and uncles were old, and the old lords were like that; they took their dusty feuds to the grave, forgetting nothing and forgiving less. — George R R Martin

Balon is dead! The king is dead! Yet a king will come again! For what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger! A king will rise! — George R R Martin

Shit and piss and trash were thrown from windows to the distant street until rain came to wash them away, and like plants in rich soil, the unstable, unreliable buildings rose, driven by the deep human desire to be the one least shat upon. — George R R Martin

Why do the Gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves? — George R R Martin

Do you believe in ghosts, Maester?" [Jaime] asked Qyburn.
The man's face grew strange. "Once, at the Citadel, I came into an empty room and saw an empty chair. Yet I knew a woman had been there, only a moment before. The cushion was dented where she'd sat, the cloth was still warm, and her scent lingered in the air. If we leave our smells behind us when we leave a room, surely something of our souls must remain when we leave this life? — George R R Martin

In a heartbeat, a thousand voices took up the chant. King Joffrey and King Robb and King Stannis were forgotten, and King Bread ruled alone. "Bread." they clamored. "Bread, Bread! — George R R Martin

There have always been men who found it easier to speak vows than to keep them. — George R R Martin

I stayed sober for this? — George R R Martin

Fuck your lineage," said Gerris. "The dragons won't care about your blood, except maybe how it tastes. You cannot tame a dragon with a history lesson. They're monsters, not maesters. Quent, is this truly what you want to do? — George R R Martin

Do you want to die old and craven in your bed?- How else? Though not till I'm done reading. — George R R Martin

There is no wine so sweet as wine taken from a foe. — George R R Martin

My enemies are legion. — George R R Martin

If the fire was too hot, you could hardly keep the pudding from scorching by tossing a handful of raisins in the pot. — George R R Martin

Do you think it will truly come to battle between them? If they should come to some accord - "
"They won't," Tyrion said. "They are too different and yet too much alike, and neither could ever stomach the other. — George R R Martin

If you're going to write about war, which my books are about, wars are nasty things. I think it's sort of a cheap, easy way out to write a war story in which no one ultimately dies. — George R R Martin

All kings must be butchers or meat. — George R R Martin

Shagga son of Dolf will chop off their manhoods and feed them to the crows. — George R R Martin

She had surrendered her virtue at six-and-ten, to a beautiful blond-haired sailor on a trading galley up from Lys. He only knew six words of the Common Tongue, but "fuck" was one of them - the very word she'd hoped to hear. — George R R Martin

His chains chinked softly. I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health. Yes, I meant for him to die. — George R R Martin

The dwarf has risen from the dead, Tyrion thought. And look, he's uglier than ever, run tell your friends. — George R R Martin

The wolf pup loved her, even if no one else did. — George R R Martin

I'd let his whole khalasar fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army ... — George R R Martin

However bright a torch might burn it could never match the rising sun. — George R R Martin

Let them say what they will. I can still fly.
- Earl Sanderson, Jr. — George R R Martin

Even hungry dogs know better than to bite the hand that feeds them, — George R R Martin

A wise king keeps his own counsel, she reminded herself. — George R R Martin

Then the trees closed in around her, black as pitch and full of ghosts and memories. — George R R Martin

Stannis knows who Aemon is. If the red woman requires king's blood for her spells ... — George R R Martin

With scarcely a moment's respite, they began to play a very different sort of song. No one sang the words, but Catelyn knew "The Rains of Castamere" when she heard it. Edwyn was hurrying toward a door. She hurried faster, driven by the music. Six quick strides and she caught him. And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low? — George R R Martin

I grew up with four T.V. channels. If you missed a show, you missed it. You gotta wait a week for the next one. I'd mail-order books: take a quarter, get an envelope, send off for it and wait until it arrived. I grew up waiting for things. — George R R Martin

Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died. — George R R Martin

The map was one thing and the land quite another. — George R R Martin

Old powers waken. Shadows stir. An age of wonder and terror will soon be upon us, and age for gods and heroes. — George R R Martin

Even the truest knight cannot protect a king against himself — George R R Martin

They'll kill for that knighthood, but don't ever think they'll die for it. — George R R Martin

Shattered legs may heal in time, but some betrayals fester and poison the soul. — George R R Martin

Black or red, a dragon is still a dragon. - Illyrio Mopatis — George R R Martin

Sometimes prayers are answered." Jon — George R R Martin

A herd of old men with shriveled balls and spotted skin and young men with ridiculous hair. — George R R Martin

Thoren Smallwood, a sinewy ranger with a weak chin and a weaker mouth hidden under a thin scraggle of beard, gave Jon and Sam a cool look. He had been one of Alliser Thorne's henchmen, and had no love for either of them. "The Lord Commander's place is at Castle Black, lording and commanding," he told Mormont, ignoring the newcomers, "it seems to me."
"If you are ever Lord Commander, you may do as you please," Mormont told the ranger, "but it seems to me that I have not died yet, nor have the brothers put you in my place. — George R R Martin

Her name is Brienne. Brienne, the maid of Tarth. You are still maiden, I hope?"
"Yes."
"Oh, good. I only rescue maidens. — George R R Martin

Life is very full of sex, or should be. As much as I admire Tolkien - and I do, he was a giant of fantasy and a giant of literature, and I think he wrote a great book that will be read for many years - you do have to wonder where all those Hobbits came from, since you can't imagine Hobbits having sex, can you? Well, sex is an important part of who we are. It drives us, it motivates us, it makes us do sometimes very noble things and it makes us do sometimes incredibly stupid things. Leave it out, and you've got an incomplete world. — George R R Martin

If there were ghosts in Harrenhal, they never troubled her. It was the living men she feared. — George R R Martin

and your enemies will melt away like snow." He shall be the stallion that mounts the world. Dany knew how it went with prophecies. They were made of words, and words were wind. There would be no son for Loraq, no heir to unite dragon and harpy. When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. Only then would her womb quicken — George R R Martin

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, men said, but the enemy of my friend is my enemy. — George R R Martin

She loved the fine hairs on his chest. She loved the strength in his arms, the sound of his laughter, the way he would always look into her eyes and say her name. — George R R Martin

Children are a battle of a different sort ... A battle without banners or warhorns but no less fierce. — George R R Martin

From where I sit, battles are hard. I've written my share. Sometimes I employ the private's viewpoint, very up close and personal, dropping the reader right into the middle of the carnage. That's vivid and visceral, but of necessity chaotic, and it is easy to lose all sense of the battle as a whole. Sometimes I go with the general's point of view instead, looking down from on high, seeing lines and flanks and reserves. That gives a great sense of the tactics, of how the battle is won or lost, but can easily slide into abstraction. — George R R Martin

Abed, the walls pressed close and the ceiling hung heavy above him; abed, the room was his cell and Winterfell his prison. Yet outside his windows, the wide world still called. - Bran — George R R Martin

No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed to almost vanish when seen edge on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing and a ghost light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew that it was sharper than any razor. — George R R Martin

The more people you love, the weaker you are. — George R R Martin

Bloodraven is the root of all our woes, the white worm gnawimg at the heart of the realm. — George R R Martin

Ride with them, eat with them, fight with them, for as long as it takes. — George R R Martin

Until what? Foolish woman, will holding it secret in our 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. — George R R Martin

My father went south once, to answer the summons of a king. He never came home again. — George R R Martin

Look at me!" he would shout as he ran laughing through the halls of Storm's End. "Look at me, I'm a dragon," or "Look at me, I'm a wizard," or "Look at me, look at me, I'm the rain god."
The bold little boy with wild black hair and laughing eyes was a man grown now, one-and-twenty, and still he played his games. Look at me, I'm a king, Cressen thought sadly. — George R R Martin

You Starks are hard to kill," Jon agreed. — George R R Martin

A great many of the epic fantasies, from The Lord of the Rings onward, are about war, but to my mind, a lot of it doesn't really deal honestly with the consequences of war, what war does to us, as a society, what war does to us, as individuals, and the struggle for power, in the same way, and what we're fighting for. — George R R Martin

And I tell you truly, Daenerys, there is no man in all the world who will ever be half so true to you as me. — George R R Martin

I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off. To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it's madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much. — George R R Martin

The cat who wants his bowl of cream must know when to purr and when to show his claws - Ser Kyle, the Cat of Misty Moor — George R R Martin

She tried so hard to be brave, to be fierce as a wolverine and all, but sometimes she felt like she was just a little girl after all. — George R R Martin

Never draw your sword unless you mean to use it. — George R R Martin

I am Cersei of House Lannister, a lion of the Rock, the rightful queen of these Seven Kingdoms, trueborn daughter of Tywin Lannister. And hair grows back. — George R R Martin

Dark wings, dark words. — George R R Martin

I have made more mistakes than you can possibly imagine," Ned said, "but that was not one of them. — George R R Martin

His eyes could see inside you, could see how weak and worthless and ugly you were down deep. When he looked at you, you knew. — George R R Martin

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

A few wisps of smoke still rose from the blackened stones of Hazdar, twisted like ribbons by the wind. — George R R Martin

This time the Imp meant to fight, and a city that fought could expect no mercy at all. — George R R Martin

A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. — George R R Martin

Jon Snow: I'm not afraid to die. Mormont: Nor life, I hope. — George R R Martin

Ned was clad in a white linen doublet with the direwolf of Stark on the breast; his black wool cloak was fastened at the collar by his silver hand of office. Black and white and grey, all the shades of truth. — George R R Martin

I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health. — George R R Martin

A bruise is a lesson, she told herself, and each lesson makes us better. — George R R Martin

I'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

Was a soldier's tent of heavy canvas, dyed the dark yellow that sometimes passed for gold. Only the royal banner that streamed atop the center pole marked it as a king's. That, and the guards without; queen's men leaning on tall spears, with the badge of the fiery heart sewn over their own. Grooms came up to help them dismount. One of the guards relieved Melisandre of her cumbersome standard, driving the staff deep into the soft ground. Devan stood to one side of the door, waiting to lift the flap for — George R R Martin

To Winterfell we pledge the faith of Greywater, — George R R Martin

The man who fears losing has already lost. — George R R Martin

Some men are born to be killed. — George R R Martin

An honest kiss, a little kindness, everyone deserves that much, however big or small. — George R R Martin

When I sleep I turn into a wolf. Bran turned his face away and looked back out into the night. Do wolves dreams? — George R R Martin

Sitting at a crowded table with men who did not share a common language with you, listening to them talk and jape whilst understanding none of it, had quickly grown wearisome. Particularly since he always found himself wondering if the japes and laughter were directed at him. — George R R Martin

Grief can derange even the strongest and most disciplined of minds. — George R R Martin

Stannis had never learned to soften his speech, to dissemble or flatter; he said what he thought, and those that did not like it could be damned. — George R R Martin

You look pale, Sansa," Cersei observed. "Is your red flower still blooming?"
"Yes"
"How apt. The men will bleed out there, and you in here. — George R R Martin

Hodor," said Hodor. "Hodor," Bran agreed. — George R R Martin

He had to remember that. I must not let him drive me mad. He can take my fingers and my toes, he can put out my eyes and slice my ears off, but he cannot take my wits unless I let him. — George R R Martin

There is no limit to Lannister pride or Lannister ambition," Catelyn — George R R Martin

Edd, fetch me a block. — George R R Martin

All she felt was pity, and pity was death to desire — George R R Martin

Was there ever a war where only one side bled? — George R R Martin

Dogs and wolves and lions, may the Others take them all. — George R R Martin

Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle. — George R R Martin

They said Lord Tywin loved gold most of all; he even shit gold, — George R R Martin

Why ask for truth when you close your ears to it? - Ser Barristan Selmy to Daenerys — George R R Martin

In his dreams Jaime always had two hands; one was made of gold, but it worked just like the other. — George R R Martin

If it were easy all men would do it. — George R R Martin

Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear?
Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods — George R R Martin