The distinction between literary and genre fiction is stupid and pernicious. It dates back to a feud between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James. James won, and it split literature into two streams. But it’s a totally false dichotomy.
The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that.
You’ve got a bold tongue, little man. One day, someone is like to cut it out and make you eat it.
Light our fire and protect us from the dark, blah blah, light our way and keep us toasty warm, the night is dark and full of terrors, save us from the scary things, and blah blah blah some more.
They will not love me, you say? When have they ever loved me? How can I lose something I have never owned? – Stannis.
He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon.
I can be humbler than anyone.
Tarly, when I was a lad half your age, my lady mother told me that if I stood about with my mouth open, a weasel was like to mistake it for his lair and run down my throat. If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise, beware of weasels.
Drowning was bad enough. But drowning sad and sober, that’s too cruel.
A crown should not sit easy on the head.
Books are dead men talking.
I am not questioning your honor, I am denying its existence.
In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.
When your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you.
Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?
Kind? How boring that would be. I aspire to be wicked.
What is dead may never die, but rises again, stronger and harder.
When treating with liars, even an honest man must lie.
We’re all the heroes of our own stories. So, when I am inside the head of a character who would otherwise be considered a villain, I have a great deal of affection for that character and I’m trying to see the world and the events through their eyes.
I think my very earliest stories were all intellectual exercises and I was writing from experiences I had never had about characters who were about an inch deep.
It’s very hard to find a good child actor. There are a lot of child actors out there, especially in America, and they’re cute kids, but most child actors appear on sitcoms where their main role is to be cute and make funny little remarks.