George R.r. Martin Quotes

Can I dwell on what I scarce remember? I held a castle on the Marches once, and there was a woman I was pledged to marry, but I could not find that castle today, nor tell you the color of that woman's hair. Who knighted me, old friend? What were my favorite foods? It all fades. Sometimes I think I was born on the bloody grass in that grove of ash, with the taste of fire in my mouth and a hole in my chest. Are you my mother, Thoros?

~ George R.r. Martin

The pale pink light of dawn sparkled on branch and leaf and stone. Every blade of grass was carved from emerald, every drip of water turned to diamond. Flowers and mushrooms alike wore coats of glass. Even the mud puddles had a bright brown sheen. Through the shimmering greenery, the black tents of his brothers were encased in a fine glaze of ice. So there is magic beyond the Wall after all.

~ George R.r. Martin

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

Time 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. Martin

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

~ George R.r. Martin

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.

~ George R.r. Martin

All the world knew that a maester forged his silver link when he learned the art of healing—but the world preferred to forget that men who knew how to heal also knew how to kill.

~ George R.r. Martin

…When you’ve know me longer, you’ll learn that I mean everything I say.”“Even the lies?”“Especially the lies. Lord Petyr…

~ George R.r. Martin

Are you certain they never cut your member off? Tormund gave a shrug, as if to say he would never understand such madness. Well, you are a free man now, but if you will have the girl, best find yourself a she-bear. If a man does not use his member it grows smaller and smaller, until one day he wants to piss and cannot find it.

~ George R.r. Martin

I am the sword in the darkness.

~ George R.r. Martin

And it’s great to have all these readers and fans who, for the most part, are very nice people, saying they love the books and the TV show. But there are so many of them and it just doesn’t end. Oh, and ‘selfies’! If I could clap my hands and burn out every camera phone in the world, I swear I’d do it!

~ George R.r. Martin

If the novels are still being read in 50 years, no one is ever going to say: ‘What’s great about that sixth book is that he met his deadline!’ It will be about how the whole thing stands up.

~ George R.r. Martin

I often said that writers are of two types.There is the architect, which is one type. The architect, as if designing a building, lays out the entire novel at a time. He knows how many rooms there will be or what a roof will be made of or how high it will be, or where the plumbing will run and where the electrical outlets will be in its room. All that before he drives the first nail. Everything is there in the blueprint.And then there's the gardener who digs the hole in the ground, puts in the seed and waters it with his blood and sees what comes up. The gardener knows certain things. He's not completely ignorant. He knows whether he planted an oak tree, or corn, or a cauliflower. He has some idea of the shape but a lot of it depends on the wind and the weather and how much blood he gives it and so forth.No one is purely an architect or a gardener in terms of a writer, but many writers tend to one side or the other. I'm very much more a gardener.

~ George R.r. Martin

A sweet fate oft hides a sinner's heart.

~ George R.r. Martin

A son for a son, heh. But that's a grandson...and he never was much use. --Walder Frey

~ George R.r. Martin

Much that may seem evil can be good.

~ George R.r. Martin

You don't just have people who wake up in the morning and say, What evil things can I do today, because I'm Mr. Evil? People do things for what they think are justified reasons. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and you have to keep that in mind. If you read a lot of history, as I do, even the worst and most monstrous people thought they were the good guys. We're all very tangled knots.

~ George R.r. Martin

The wolf blood, Arya remembered now. I'll be as strong as Robb, I said I would. She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. 'I am a direwolf, and done with the wooden teeth.

~ George R.r. Martin

He wished he could relieve himself of his doubts and guilts half as easily.

~ George R.r. Martin

Kill the boy and let the man be born.

~ George R.r. Martin

We are one. Man, horse, lance, we are one beast of blood and wood and iron.

~ George R.r. Martin

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

All my memories are poisoned.

~ George R.r. Martin

Tell Khan Drogo that he has given me the wind.

~ George R.r. Martin

Yet even so, Jon Snow was not sorry he had come. There were wonders here as well. He had seen sunlight flashing on icy thin waterfalls as they plunged over the lips of sheer stone cliffs, and a mountain meadow full of autumn wildflowers, blue coldsnaps and bright scarlet frostfires and stands of piper's grass in russet and gold. He had peered down ravines so deep and black they seemed certain to end in some hell, and he had ridden his garron over a wind-eaten bridge of natural stone with nothing but sky to either side. Eagles nested in the heights and came down to hunt the valleys, circling effortlessly on great blue-grey wings that seemed almost part of the sky.

~ George R.r. Martin

Ten years from now, no one is going to care how quickly the books came out. The only thing that will matter, the only thing anyone will remember, is how good they were. That's my main concern, and always will be.

~ George R.r. Martin

You are an honest and honorable man, Lord Eddard. Ofttimes I forget that. I have met so few of them in my life.” He glanced around the cell. “When I see what honesty and honor have won you, I understand why.

~ George R.r. Martin

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

~ George R.r. Martin

The best lies are seasoned with a bit of truth

~ George R.r. Martin

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

A crisp roast chicken would set the world aright.

~ George R.r. Martin

I thank you for calling them off, young ser. I promise you, they would have found me indigestible.

~ George R.r. Martin

Silence is a prince's friend.

~ George R.r. Martin

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

Everyone who isn't us is an enemy. - Cersei

~ George R.r. Martin

We are only human, and the Gods have fashioned us for love. This is our greatest glory and our greatest tragedy.

~ George R.r. Martin

An ugly smile. An ugly soul.

~ George R.r. Martin

I believe in steel swords, gold coins, and man's wits. (...) And I believe there once were dragons. I've seen their skulls, after all.

~ George R.r. Martin

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