"Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty."

"Three good men dead, to save a hedge knight's foot."

"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."

"Fiction is lies; we're writing about people who never existed and events that never happened when we write fiction, whether its science fiction or fantasy or western mystery stories or so-called literary stories. All those things are essentially untrue. But it has to have a truth at the core of it."

"A sweet fate oft hides a sinner's heart."

"I am the sword in the darkness."

"His long wait is almost done. I am sending Balon Swann to Sunspear, to deliver him the head of Gregor Clegane. Ser Balon would have another task as well, but that part was best left unsaid."Ah. Ser Harys Swyft fumbled at his funny little beard with thumb and forefinger. "He is dead then? Ser Gregor?"I would think so, my lord, Aurane Waters said dryly. "I am told that removing the head from the body is often mortal."

"He'll be down with the books. My old septon used to say books are dead men talking. Dead men should keep quiet is what I say. No one wants to hear a dead man's yabber."

"The best lies are seasoned with a bit of truth."

"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."

"I only need half my wits to be a match for you."

"I prefer to work with grey characters rather than black and white."

"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."

"No, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don't you see? Don't you SEE?"

"Every child knows its mother, Dany thought. When the seas go dry and the mountains blow in the wind like leaves."

"Every boy dreams of serving in the Kingsguard."

"Yet the higher a man climbs the further he has to fall."

"A hedge knight must hold tight to his pride. Without it, he was no more than a sellsword."

"A bloody sword is a beautiful thing."

"His wits have gone dark as his eyes."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, men said, but the enemy of my friend is my enemy."

"A sworn sworn owes his liege our service and obedience, but this is madness."

"...his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking."

"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."

"Mine is the blood of the dragon."

"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 feetdeep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the longnight, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little childrenare born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt andhungry, and the white walkers move through the woods."

"It all goes back and back," Tyrion thought, "to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads."

"Curiosity is my great vice. I fear you have seen through to the heart of me, and now seek to exploit my weakness."

"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 office means or who your grandsire was. They follow strength. They follow the man."

"My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight."

"For men, the answer was always the same and never farther away than the nearest sword. For a woman, a mother, the way was stonier and harder to know."

"Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it."

"Terrible times breed terrible things, my lord."

"Brick and blood built Astapor, and brick and blood her people."

"Still, beauty can mask deadly danger."

"Jaime gave her [Brienne] a hard smile. "See, wench? We know each other too well."

"The things I do for love."

"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."

"Pride ill becomes a beggar, ser."

"An ugly smile. An ugly soul."

"Children are a battle of a different sort. ... A battle without banners or warhorns but no less fierce."

"Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end."

"Sometimes the storm winds blow so strong a man has no choice but to furl his sails."

"These are the winter's people, he reminded himself. Tears froze upon your cheeks where they come from."

"Words are wind, and the wind from Manderly's mouth means no more than the wind escaping his bottom."

"Now, how do you suppose this queen will react when you turn up with your begging bowl in hand and say, 'Good morrow to you, Auntie. I am your nephew, Aegon, returned from the dead. I've been hiding on a poleboat all my life, but now I've washed the blue dye from my hair and I'd like a dragon, please...and oh, did I mention, my claim to the Iron Throne is stronger than your own?"

"Laughter is poison to fear."

"Why do the Gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?"

"Flies are the dead man's revenge."

"A sweet fruit for a sweet fight."