George R.R. Martin Quotes

George Raymond Richard Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin, also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. (George R.R. Martin Quotes)

“A book can be as dangerous as a sword in the right hands, said Haldon.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A culture with cats is richer and more humane than one deprived of their unique companionship.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you’ll know the debt is paid.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“A frightened man is a beaten man.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“A great battle is a terrible thing,” the old knight said, “but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“A harp can be a dangerous as a sword, in the right hands.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“A Lannister always pays his debts.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A lord may love the men that he commands, but he cannot be a friend to them. One day he may need to sit in judgement on them, or send them forth to die.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“A lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplish what swords cannot.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A man does not need to be a wizard to know truth from falsehood, not if he has eyes. You need only learn to read a face. Look at the eyes. The mouth. The muscles here, at the corners of the jaw, and here, where the neck joins the shoulders.” He touched her lightly with two fingers. “Some liars blink. Some stare. Some look away. Some lick their lips. Many coer their mouths just before they tell a lie, as if to hide their deceit. Other signs may be more subtle, but they are always there. A false smile and a true one may look alike, but they are as different as dusk from dawn.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“A man who won’t listen can’t hear.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. That is why I read so much.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A thing without a name has no substance. If it existed, it would have a name. And, likewise, if you give a thing a name, somewhere, on some level, the thing named will exist, will come to be.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“A true man does what he will, not what he must.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“A woman could be strong without having the emotions of a brick.”
George R.R. Martin
Dangerous Women

“A woman’s life is nine parts mess to one part magic, you’ll learn that soon enough…and the parts that look like magic turn out to be the messiest of all.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“After the deep, warm nothingness, there was no pleasure in recalling who he was. Without coming fully awake, he nonetheless felt the weight of his own being settling on his heart. Despair and anger and the constant gnawing worry sounded in his mind like a man in the next room clearing his throat.”
George R.R. Martin
Hunter’s Run

“All men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“An admiral without ships, a hand without fingers, in service of a king without a throne. Is this a knight who comes before us, or the answer to a child’s riddle?”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“An ecosystem might be likened to a great biological machine, perhaps. If this analogy is pursued, humanity must be seen as part of the machine. No doubt an important part—an engine, a key circuit—but in no case apart from the mechanism, as is often fallaciously assumed.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“An honorable death is well and good, but if the life at stake is not your own, what then?”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“And even that is not the worst. For there are other times when I think that I have always been here, that I was born here some endless age ago. And the memories are all false ones, sent to make me hurt the more.” Sharra”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“And he spoke very slowly, in a voice that was also like fog, that drifted and curled and hid things, and you knew that there were mysteries there and things brooding just out of sight and far-off lights that you would never reach.”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“And I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“And maybe that is best. I don’t know anymore, if I ever did. I remember love vaguely, I think I can recall what it was like, and I remember that it never lasts.”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“And the crow once called the raven black.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Anger was better than tears, better than grief, better than guilt.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“As a god, I’d taught that people should turn to each other, that they could keep away the darkness by love and laughter and talk. So all these things the Seven took from me. “And even that is not the worst. For there are other times when I think that I have always been here, that I was born here some endless age ago. And the memories are all false ones, sent to make me hurt the more.”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“As well ask what good is life, what good is death? If the day comes when you would find me again, give that coin to any man from Braavos, and say these words to him—valar morghulis.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Before he had lost his sight, the maester had loved books as much as Samwell Tarly did. He understood the way that you could sometimes fall right into them, as if each page was a hole into another world.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Beneath it his skin was milky white, serene and unlined, ready to begin anew, ready for the world to write upon it.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“Bloodraven is the root of all our woes, the white worm gnawimg at the heart of the realm.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“But the melancholy of Worlorn’s dying forests had seeped into his flesh, and he saw Gwen through tainted eyes, a doll figure in a suit as faded as despair.”
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“But the world preferred to forget that men who knew how to heal also knew how to kill.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Came out of Old Earth. Power corrupts, it went, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“Can they love without a word for it?”
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“Common boys fight with wooden swords too, only theirs are sticks and broken branches.”
George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword

“Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Death is not the worst thing. It is His gift to us, and end to want and pain. On the day that we are born the Many-Faced God sends each of us a dark angel to walk through life beside us. When our sins and our sufferings grow to great to be borne, the angel takes us.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark. And you. A small man with a big shadow, snarling in the midst of all.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Drowning was bad enough. But drowning sad and sober, that’s too cruel.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Drunks they may be, but a drunken man knows not fear. Fools, aye, but a fool can kill a king. Rats, that too, but a thousand rats can bring down a bear.”
George R.R. Martin
Dangerous Women

“Equity is often difficult to judge, and still more difficult to achieve.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“Even a priest may doubt. Even a prophet may know terror. Aeron Damphair reached within himself for his god and discovered only silence.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Every once in a very long while, Lord Tywin Lannister would actually threaten to smile; he never did, but the threat alone was terrible to behold.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Everything’s better with some wine in the belly.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Faith is always required. There are some things that cannot be proven. We believe that life is worth living. That is an article of faith. The purpose of life is to live, to resist death, perhaps to defy entropy.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“Fear cuts deeper than swords.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“FireandBlood were the words of House Targaryen, but Dunk once heard Ser Arlan say that Aegon’s should have been Wash Her and Bring Her to My Bed.”
George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword

“For a moment, he was relaxed and mindless, drifting peacefully, and then his identity returned to him lazily, like an unwanted afterthought.”
George R.R. Martin
Hunter’s Run

“For herself, she wanted sleet and ice, howling winds, thunder to shake the very stones of the Red Keep. She wanted a storm to match her rage.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“For there are other times when I think that I have always been here, that I was born here some endless age ago. And the memories are all false ones, sent to make me hurt the more.” Sharra”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“From the loins of the Old King and his beloved queen sprang such a confusion of claims and claimants than many maesters believe that the Dance of the Dragons, or some similar struggle, was inevitable.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“Give a thing a name and it will somehow come to be. All truth is in naming, and all lies as well, for nothing distorts like a false name can, a false name that changes the reality as well as the seeming.”
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“Good and evil are silly lies, nonsense put forth to plague honest sensible men.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“Hard things only grow harder if you put them off.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“He who hurries through life hurries to his grave.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Her father said there was no shame in being afraid, only in showing your fear. “All men live with fear,” he said.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Her name was Tolly Mune, but in the stories they call her all sorts of things.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“How could it end any other way? The beast was greater than they were, a force of nature. The beast was like the river, eternal. It had no doubts, no thoughts, no dreams or plans.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? A thousand eyes and one.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“I am the blood of the dragon. Do not presume to teach me lessons.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“I am the blood of the dragon. I must be strong. I must have fire in my eyes when I face them, not tears.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“I am Thunder and Thunder is me, we are one beast, we are joined, we are one.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“I crossed a thousand leagues to come to you, and lost the best part of me along the way. Don’t tell me to leave.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“I don’t know anymore, if I ever did. I remember love vaguely, I think I can recall what it was like, and I remember that it never lasts.”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“I fed my last husband to my dragon. If you make me take another, I may eat him myself.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“I have never forgotten, and I can’t imagine you have, and I’ve thought of it over the years. It was so good, when it was good, I kept thinking. How could it go wrong?”
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“I love beauty, but sometimes a thing lovely to behold conceals vileness and evil within.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“I remember love vaguely, I think I can recall what it was like, and I remember that it never lasts.”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“I was a lot better at starting stories than I was at finishing them.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“I will hurt you for this. I don’t know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you’ll know the debt is paid.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“If a man paints a target on his chest, he should expect that sooner or later someone will loose an arrow on him.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“If my dreams are to come true, there must come a time when day and night clasp hands across the twilight of fear that lies between us. There must come a time for risk. Let it be now, with you.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore.”
George R.R. Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire

“In Sunspear hung a portrait of the Princess Daenerys who had come to Dorne to marry one of Arianne’s forebears. In her younger days Arianne had spent hours gazing at it, back when she was just a pudgy flat-chested girl on the cusp of maidenhood who prayed every night for the gods to make her pretty. A hundred years ago, Daenerys Targaryen came to Dorne to make a peace. Now another comes to make a war, and my brother will be her king and consort. King Quentyn. Why did that sound so silly?”
George R.R. Martin
The Winds of Winter

“In the cool weak light the nightflames all had died, and the silent streets echoed death and desolation. Worlorn’s day. Yet it was twilight.”
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you’ve planned for them.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“It was a good time, a golden autumn, a time of peace and plenty. But winter was coming.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“It was never wise for a ruler to eschew the trappings of power, for power itself flows in no small measure from such trappings.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“It was queer how sometimes a child’s innocent eyes can see things that grown men are blind to.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“It was well known among rivermen that having a preacher and a gray mare on board was an invitation to disaster.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“It’s the loneliness of people trapped within themselves. The loneliness of people who have said the wrong thing so often that they don’t have the courage to say anything anymore.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“I’ve never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they’re only men with the useful bits cut off.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Knowledge is a Weapon, Jon. Arm yourself well before you ride forth to Battle.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Learn to use your ears more and your mouth less, or your reign will be shorter than I am.”
George R.R. Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire

“Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.”
George R.R. Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire

“Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can’t make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms … or the memory of a brother’s smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Make no choice, and you have chosen. Failure to decide, because you lack the right, is itself a decision, First Councilor. In abstaining, you vote.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“Many good men have been bad kings, Maester Aemon used to say, and some bad men have been good kings.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Men have scars, women mysteries.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Men may plot and plan and scheme, but they had best pray as well, for no plan ever made by man has ever withstood the whims of the gods above.”
George R.R. Martin
Dangerous Women

“Men may plot and plan and scheme, but they had best pray as well, for no plan made by man has ever withstood the whims of the gods above.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“Men of honor will do things for their children that they would never consider doing for themselves.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Men will always underestimate you, he said, and their pride will make them want to vanquish you quickly, lest it be said that a woman tried them sorely. Let them spend their strength in furious attacks, whilst you conserve your own. Wait and watch, girl, wait and watch.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Monsters are entirely mythological, sir, like spirits, werebeasts, and competent bureaucrats.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“Most have been forgotten. Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. The best. The best and the worst. And a few who were a bit of both.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“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.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“My brothers have my measure when it comes to fighting and dancing and thinking and reading books, but none of them is half my equal at lying insensible in the mud.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell’s grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan’s stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow’s smile. He used to mess my hair and call me “little sister,” she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Never refuse a cup of wine or a horn of ale,” Ser Arlan had once told him, “it may be a year before you see another.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Never refuse a cup of wine or a horn of ale. It may be a year before you see another.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“No man should live longer than his teeth.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“No mortal man could frighten him, no more than the darkness could, nor the bones of his soul, the grey and grisly bones of his soul.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“No one looked at him. No one spoke to him. No one paid him any mind. He was surrounded by men sworn to House Lannister, a vast host twenty thousand strong, and yet he was alone.”
George R.R. Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire

“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 his men about him to hear his final ringing words. They fought in the predawn gloom, shadow against shadow, stumbling over roots and rocks, with mud and rotting leaves beneath their feet.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Not everyone who spoke you friendly was really your friend.” – Arya”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Nothing burns like the cold.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Nothing is quite so melancholy as the death of beauty.”
George R.R. Martin
Dying of the Light

“Nothing. My father is very good at doing nothing. He calls it thinking.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Oak and iron, guard me well, or else I’m dead, and doomed to hell.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Oh yes, it hurts at times to be alone among the stars. But it hurts a lot more to be alone at a party. A lot more.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted her his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father’s head. Sansa would never make that mistake again.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Only you could have won me away from the sea. I came back from the ends of the earth for you.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“Opening your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Pain was as much a part of knighthood as were swords and shields.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Power resides only where men believe it resides. A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Queen you shall be, until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Sex is sharing, you see, and it’s good to share with everyone. But the sharing has to be real and meaningful. That creates problems.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And she feared to dream. Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“She is not truly beautiful but something about her draws the eye.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of the horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above. It made her feel small, but free as well.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“She would wed as he commanded, or he would make her half-brother Aegon his heir in place of her. At this the princess’s will gave way.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“So do not waste my time. It is the most precious thing I have, time. It is the most precious thing any of us have.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume II

“So young,” said Wyman Manderly, “Though mayhaps this was a blessing. Had he lived he would’ve grown up to be a Frey.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Some gave me soft words and some blunt, some made excuses, some promises, some only lied. In the end words are just wind.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Sometimes I think … the humanity of him is all hollow, a mask … he is only an old animal, so ancient it has lost even the taste for food, but it hunts on nonetheless, because that is all it remembers, that is all it is, the beast.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“Sometimes I think everyone is just pretending to be brave, and none of us really are. Maybe pretending is how you get brave, I don’t know.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Sometimes the storm winds blow so strong a man has no choice but to furl his sails.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Sometimes there is no happy choice, Sam, only one less grievous than the others.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Such are the vicissitudes of life,” Tuf said, “that each of us must sometimes accept that which he does not like.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“That night the wind was howling almost like a wolf and there were some real wolves off to the west giving it lessons.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“The apples stewed with prunes are excellent, except for the prunes, I won’t eat prunes myself. Well, there was one time when Hobb chopped them up with chesnuts and carrots and hid them in a hen. Never trust a cook, my lord. They’ll prune you when you least expect it.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“The beginning of her story is lost to us, with the memory of the world from which she sprang. The end? The end is not yet, and when it comes we shall not know it. We have only the middle, or rather a piece of that middle, the smallest part of the legend, a mere fragment of the quest.”
George R.R. Martin
The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr

“The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“The Father made men curious, some say to test our faith. It is my own abiding sin that whenever I come upon a door I must needs see what lies upon the farther side, but certain doors are best left unopened.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“The gardener digs a hole in the ground and throws in a seed and waters it and he hopes something comes up. Now, he knows generally what’s going to come up. He knows whether he planted an acorn for an oak tree or a tomato plant to get some tomatoes for the summer. But there’s a lot of details he doesn’t know. It may not grow at all. It may grow a little and then die. It may go wild. A chipmunk may eat it during the night. You don’t know.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“The hotel bar was quiet and dark, with the kind of mood that promotes good talk and serious drinking.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“The Iron Throne was forged with fire and steel and terror, it is said, but once the throne had cooled, it became the seat of justice for all Westeros.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“The Iron Throne will go to the man who has the strength to seize it.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“The Lord of Winterfell would always be a Stark”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“The main thing is that poetry is pretty. The way the words fit together, the rhythms, the pictures they paint. Poems are pleasant when said aloud. The rhymes, the inner music, just the way they sound.”
George R.R. Martin
Fevre Dream

“The man is as useless as nipples on a breastplate.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“The most insidious thing about bondage was how easy it was to grow accustomed to it.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“The ones who look the most suspicious are likely innocent. It’s the ones who look innocent I need to beware.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“The sad truth of history has always been that the unreasoning masses follow the powerful, and not the wise.”
George R.R. Martin
Tuf Voyaging

“The seeds of war are oft planted during times of peace.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“The singers make much of kings who valiantly die in battle, but your life is worth more than a sword. To me at least, who gave it to you.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“The snail may leave a trail of slime behind him, but a little slime will do a man no harm, while if you dance with dragons, you must expect to burn.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“The summers have been shorter since the last dragon died, and the winters longer and crueler.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“The truth will set us free. But freedom is cold and empty and frightening, and lies can often be warm and beautiful.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume I

“The vilest of men and the wickedest of women likewise may do good from time to time, for love and compassion and pity may be found in even the blackest of hearts.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“The world made no sense when a great prince died so a hedge knight might live.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice…”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“The world’s nothing but a mean bully, that’s a fact. Even when you’ve big misfortunes threatening to drop on your head, small ones still take every chance to prick your toes.”
George R.R. Martin
Dangerous Women

“The years leech at a man’s memories, even those he has vowed never to forget.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem… but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Then the storm broke, and the dragons danced.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“There are worse things than dying with a song on your lips.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“There he lost his love and half his crew, if the tales be true…”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“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.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“They were never my pack, not even Hot Pie and Gendry. I was stupid to think so, just a stupid little girl, and no wolf at all.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“This emptiness—infinite darkness, infinite stillness, trapped alone with only his own mind—was what had always waited for him all his life, in spite of the blessings and benedictions of the Church, in spite of his sins and occasional semi-sincere repentance.” (George R.R. Martin Quotes)
George R.R. Martin
Hunter’s Run

“This is a night for song and sin and drink, for come the morrow, the virtuous and the vile burn together.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“This was a pain that did not touch the body, a pain that did not race along the nerve paths, a pain that filled the mind so completely and so shatteringly that not even the smallest part of you was free to think or plan or meditate. The pain was you, and you were the pain. There was nothing to dissociate from, no cool sanctum of thought where you might retreat. (From The Glass Flower)”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume II

“To go north, you must go south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light, you must pass beneath the shadow.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Trueborn children are made in a marriage bed and blessed by the Father and the Mother, but bastards are born of lust and weakness.”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Valar Morghulis- All men must die”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Viserys sold my mother’s crown, and men called him a beggar. I shall keep this one, so men will call me a queen. (Daenerys)”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Warmth is a byproduct of decay, the stepchild of entropy”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume II

“We all dream of things we cannot have.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“We are as the gods made us. Strong and weak, good and bad, cruel and kind, heroic and selfish. Know that if you would rule over the kingdom of men.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“We look up at the same stars and see such different things.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“When all the trees have been cut down and all the animals have been hunted to extinction, when all the waters are polluted and the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.”
George R.R. Martin
Dangerous Women

“When I know the truth, I must go to Robert. And pray that he is the man I think he is, he finished silently, and not the man I fear he has become.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“When the end comes, I will meet it raging.”
George R.R. Martin
Dreamsongs, Volume II

“When the gods are silent, lords and kings will make themselves heard.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,” she said sadly. “When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.” -Daenerys Targaryen”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“When treating with liars, even an honest man must lie.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“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.”
George R.R. Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire

“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.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“Why do the Gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords

“Why give a horse to a man who cannot ride?”
George R.R. Martin
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side?”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“Women do not forget. Women do not forgive.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“Words are wind, and the only good wind is that which fills our sails.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Words are wind, and the wind that blows exiles across the narrow sea seldom blows them back.”
George R.R. Martin
The Winds of Winter

“Words are wind, Brienne told herself. They cannot hurt you. Let them wash over you.”
George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows

“Words are wind, but wind can fan a fire. My father and my uncle fought words with steel and flame. We shall fight words with words, and put out the fires before they start.”
George R.R. Martin
Fire & Blood

“You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the North. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you.”
George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings

“You can’t hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“You kill men for the wrongs they have done, not the wrongs that they may do someday.”
George R.R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons

“You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you…”
George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones

“You will never find the eye with your fingers, Bran. You must search with your heart.”
George R.R. Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire

“You’re mine,” she whispered. “Mine, as I’m yours. And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first, we’ll live.”
George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords