More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”
“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
“My father went south once, to answer the summons of a king. He never came home again.”
The twins Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk, who had died on one another’s swords hundreds of years ago, when brother fought sister in the war the singers called the Dance of the Dragons.
Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.”
The singers had given them the names of gods: Balerion, Meraxes, Vhaghar.
Let them see that their words can cut you, and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore.”
“Your brother is bigger than me,” Tyrion said with a laugh. “I decline to deliver any message that might get me killed.”
“It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.”
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon.
“The Night’s Watch is my House now,” Sam said. “The Seven have never answered my prayers. Perhaps the old gods will.”
“So they will not love,” the old man answered, “for love is the bane of honor, the death of duty.”
We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.
“Aegon’s dragons were named for the gods of Old Valyria,” she told her bloodriders one morning after a long night’s journey. “Visenya’s dragon was Vhagar, Rhaenys had Meraxes, and Aegon rode Balerion, the Black Dread. It was said that Vhagar’s breath was so hot that it could melt a knight’s armor and cook the man inside, that Meraxes swallowed horses whole, and Balerion … his fire was as black as his scales, his wings so vast that whole towns were swallowed up in their shadow when he passed overhead.”
“What if the wolves come?” “Yield,” Arya suggested.
Well, no one can ever claim that my sister does not love her family.
In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf.
A long stone table filled this room. Above it floated a human heart, swollen and blue with corruption, yet still alive.
What is the song of ice and fire?”
I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.
“I never did, but see you don’t go spreading that about. Tormund Giantsbane has a better ring to it than Tormund Giantsbabe, and that’s the honest truth o’ it.”
He turned, breathless with relief … until a man in black leapt from the brush and yanked him out of the saddle. Who he was, Sam never saw; he was up in an instant, and galloping away the next.
She was daughter to one king and mother to two more, yet she died a traitor’s death for trying to usurp her brother’s crown. It is law.
Behind them, Gendry groaned. “Lords and ladies,” he proclaimed in a disgusted tone. Arya plucked a withered crabapple off a passing branch and whipped it at him, bouncing it off his thick bull head. “Ow,” he said. “That hurt.” He felt the skin above his eye. “What kind of lady throws crabapples at people?”
“It was not for murder that the gods cursed him,” Old Nan said, “nor for serving the Andal king his son in a pie. A man has a right to vengeance. But he slew a guest beneath his roof, and that the gods cannot forgive.”
“The first Viserys intended his daughter Rhaenyra to follow him, do you deny it? But as the king lay dying the Lord Commander of his Kingsguard decided that it should be otherwise.”
“Ten black pellets on a scarlet field. I do not know those arms.” “They belonged to Criston Cole, who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon.” Jaime closed the White Book. “They called him Kingmaker.”
Needle was Jon Snow’s smile.
“I see I need a thicker beard, to cushion me against my queen’s caresses.”
“The killers scattered when they left Oldstones. Lord Vypren tracked one band to Fairmarket, but lost them there. Black Walder led hounds and hunters into Hag’s Mire after the others. The peasants denied seeing them, but when questioned sharply they sang a different song. They spoke of a one-eyed man and another who wore a yellow cloak … and a woman, cloaked and hooded.”
“Lady Brienne is a warrior maid,” confided Septon Meribald, “hunting for the Hound.” “Aye?” Narbert seemed taken aback. “To what end?” Brienne touched Oathkeeper’s hilt. “His,” she said.
“He was a good man,” he began … but as soon as he had said the words he knew that they were wrong. “No. He was a great man. A maester of the Citadel, chained and sworn, and Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch, ever faithful. When he was born they named him for a hero who had died too young, but though he lived a long long time, his own life was no less heroic. No man was wiser, or gentler, or kinder. At the Wall, a dozen lords commander came and went during his years of service, but he was always there to counsel them. He counseled kings as well. He could have been a king himself, but when they
...more
“Death should hold no fear for a man as old as me, but it does. Isn’t that silly? It is always dark where I am, so why should I fear the darkness? Yet I cannot help but wonder what will follow, when the last warmth leaves my body. Will I feast forever in the Father’s golden hall as the septons say? Will I talk with Egg again, find Dareon whole and happy, hear my sisters singing to their children? What if the horselords have the truth of it? Will I ride through the night sky forever on a stallion made of flame? Or must I return again to this vale of sorrow? Who can say, truly? Who has been
...more
“The dragon must have three heads,” he wailed, “but I am too old and frail to be one of them. I should be with her, showing her the way, but my body has betrayed me.”
What did I know?” Nothing, thought Jon Snow, the same as me.
“Then you know nothing, Jon Snow,”
“Pissing is the least of my talents. You ought to see me shit.”
My mother used to make a similar sound when I was a boy. She must have had some rat in her, now that I think of it. Brown hair, beady little eyes, liked cheese. Might be she had a tail too, I never looked to see.”
“Pomegranates. All those seeds. A man could choke to death. I’d sooner have a turnip. Never knew a turnip to do a man any harm.”
“Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince was promised would be born of their line.”
He’s going to be as useful as nipples on a breastplate.
“You took me unawares, my lord. I was not told of your coming.” “And I seem to have prevented yours.”
Such a happy sound, it makes me want to scoop out someone’s eyeballs with a spoon.
Night falls, he thought, and now my war begins.
