A shy smile, strong arms, clever fingers, and two sure swords. What more could any woman want?

Ow!” she cried out. She would have a fresh bruise there by the time she went to sleep, somewhere out at sea. A bruise is a lesson, she told herself, and each lesson makes us...

Perhaps you should speak more softly to me, then. Monsters are dangerous beasts, and just now kings seem to be dying like flies.

Free folk don’t follow names, or little cloth animals sewn on a tunic,” the King-Beyond-the-Wall had told him. “They won’t dance for coins, they don’t care how your style yourself or what that chain of...

Why do the Gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselvse?

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

A man grows weary of having no lovers but his fingers.

Harsh justice is still justice.

The world is twisted beyond hope, when lowborn smugglers must vouch for the honour of kings.

There is entirely too much tut-tutting in this realm, if you ask me. All these kings would do a deal better if they put down their swords and listened to their mothers.

All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers.

No singer would ever make a song about that battle. No maester would ever write down an account for one of the Reader’s beloved books. No banners flew, no warhorns moaned, no great lord called...

Son sus silencios lo que debéis temer, no sus palabras.

Death, there will be death, aye. Your lordship lost a son at the Red Wedding. I lost four upon the Blackwater. And why? Because the Lannisters stole the throne. Go to King’s Landing and look...

The Bear and the Maiden FairA bear there was, a bear, a bear!All black and brown, and covered with hair!The bear! The bear!Oh, come, they said, oh come to the fair!The fair? Said he, but...

It was pleasant to think that men still sang, even in the midst of butchery and famine.

The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling. (Varys)

Hodor!

Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.

Especially the lies. Lord Petyr…

Men are men … Dragons are dragons.

That’s one way we differ, Jaime and I. He’s taller as well, you may have noticed.

Lady Selyse was as tall as her husband, thin of body and thin of face, with prominent ears, a sharp nose, and the faintest hint of a mustache on her upper lip. She plucked it...

When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.

Arya did not dare [take a bath], even though she smelled as bad as Yoren by now, all sour and stinky. Some of the creatures living in her clothes had come all the way from...

Her name is Brienne,” Jaime said. “Brienne, the maid of Tarth. You are still maiden, I hope?”Her broad homely face turned red. “Yes.””Oh, good,” Jaime said. “I only rescue maidens.

She is not truly beautiful but something about her draws the eye.

Sure, I knew the differences between a space opera and a hard-boiled detective story and a historical novel…but I never cared about such differences. It seemed to me, then as now, that there are good...

Where the king goes, the realm follows-Catlyn Stark-

Words are not swords.

A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward.

Most of the stories you hear about dragons are fodder for fools.

I want to weep, she thought. I want to be comforted. I’m so tired of being strong. I want to be foolish and frightened for once. Just for a small while, that’s all….a day…..an hour.

Even in dreams, you could not fall forever.

Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs.

Not that I’m complaining. It was better than my old dream, where Harma Dogshead was feeding me to her pigs.””Harma’s dead.” Jon said.”But not the pigs. They look at me the way Slayer used to...

Fat men take a cushion with them wherever they go.

His cloak was his crowning glory; sable, thick and black and soft as sin.

show, don’t tell.” Whatever might be happening in my books, I try to put the reader into the middle of it, rather than summarizing the action. That requires vivid sensory detail. I don’t want distance,...

Only a starving man asks bread from a begger

old stories are like old friends (…) you have to visit them from time to time.

The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother’s milk. Darkness will make you strong.

Perhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor.

Then Royce’s parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young Lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It seemed red as fire...

When the end comes, I will meet it raging.

His mouth would have given despair to even the drollest of fools; it was a mouth made for frowns and scowls and sharply worded commands, all thin pale lips and clenched muscles, a mouth that...

If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.

We were talking about the prince,’ Sansa said, her voice soft as a kiss.Arya knew which prince she meant: Joffrey, of course. The tall, handsome one. Sansa got to sit with him at the feast....

Ser? My lady?” said Podrick. “Is a broken man an outlaw?” “More or less,” Brienne answered. Septon Meribald disagreed. “More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts...

Up and down,” Meera would sigh sometimes as they walked, “then down and up. Then up and down again. I hate these stupid mountains of yours, Prince Bran.””Yesterday you said you loved them.””Oh, I do....