"The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.

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. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth."
— George R.R. Martin

"When you play a game of thrones you win or you die. There is no middle ground."
— George R.R. Martin

"We all need to be mocked from time to time, lest we take ourselves too seriously."
— George R.R. Martin

"They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle Earth. "
— George R.R. Martin

"Sleep is good, he said, And books are better."
— George R.R. Martin

"Winter is coming."
— George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones)

"Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'

'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him."
— George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones)

"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)

"Some writers enjoy writing, I am told. Not me. I enjoy having written."
— George R.R. Martin

"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)

"So many vows … they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or another."
— George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings)

"The heart lies and the head plays tricks on 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 a way knowing the truth."
— George R.R. Martin

"Give me a good sharp knife and a good sharp cheese and I’m a happy man."
— George R.R. Martin

"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
— George R.R. Martin (Ace in the Hole)

"Margaery, you're clever, be a dear and tell your poor old half-daft grandmother the name of that queer fish from the Summer Isles that puffs up to ten times its own size when you poke it."
"They call them puff fish, Grandmother."
"Of course they do. Summer Islanders have no imagination."
— George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords)

"Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature. -- Lyanna"
— George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones)

"The Bear and the Maiden Fair


A 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 I'm a bear!
All black, and brown, and covered with hair!

And Down the road from here to there.
From here! To There!
Three boys, a goat, and a dancing bear!
[He] danced and spun, all the way to the Fair!
The Fair! The Fair!

[...]

Oh, sweet she was, and pure, and fair!
The maid with honey in her hair!
Her hair! Her hair!
The maid with honey in her hair!

[The bear,] smelled the scent on the summer air.
The bear! The bear!
All black and brown and covered with hair.
He smelled the scent on the summer air!
He sniffed and roared and smelled it there!
Honey on the summer air!

Oh, I'm a maid, and I'm pure and fair!
I'll never dance with a hairy bear!
A bear! A bear!
I'll never dance with a hairy bear!
He lifted her high into the air!
The bear! The bear!

I called for a knight, but you're a bear!
A bear! A bear!
All black and brown and covered with hair!
She kicked and wailed, the maid so fair,
But he licked the honey from her hair,
Her hair! Her hair!

Then she sighed and squealed and kicked the air!
My bear! She sang. My bear so fair!
And off they went, from here to there,
The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair.

~"The Bear and the Maiden Fair","
— George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones)

"Jay wondered how they'd feel the morning they all woke up and realized that somehow Camelot had turned into Mordor."
— George R.R. Martin (Dead Man's Hand)

"Writing is like sausage making in my view; you'll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what's gone into it."
— George R.R. Martin

"Of course you know him. Everyone knows a pear-shaped man."
— George R.R. Martin

"She just laughed in his face and told him she'd sooner crawl in a bed with his father's leeches before she'd crawl in one with him. She stopped laughing when he put his knife in her."
— George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords)

"The gods made our bodies as well as our souls, is it not so? They give us voices, so we might worship them with song. They give us hands, so we might build them temples. And they give us desire, so we might mate and worship them in that way."
— George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings)