A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

by George R.R. Martin

“Brotherfucker brotherfucker brotherfucker.”

King Joffrey and King Robb and King Stannis were forgotten, and King Bread ruled alone. “Bread,” they clamored. “Bread, bread!”

All hail king bread amen

I’ll have Shagga split that ugly head of yours in two to see if there’s anything inside but black pudding.”

“The little bird’s bleeding. Someone take her back to her cage and see to that cut.”

“You go too far,” he warned. “And you never go far enough.”

Now that Stannis Baratheon had come into his power, the lordlings buzzed around him like flies round a corpse.

At her throat the great ruby drank the daylight.

“May the Others bugger your Lord of Light,” Penrose spat back, “and wipe his arse with that rag you bear.”

If I had such a cloak, I would be ashamed to wear it.”

Are you afraid I’ll piss on your burning sword and put it out?”

“A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good.

“Fools love a fool,”

I grieve for him as well. For the boy he was, not the man he grew to be.”

“Robert could piss in a cup and men would call it wine, but I offer them pure cold water and they squint in suspicion and mutter to each other about how queer it tastes.”

“Only Renly could vex me so with a piece of fruit.

but I did love him, Davos. I know that now. I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my brother’s peach.”

The day I need military counsel from a Lysene brigand is the day I put off my crown and take the black.”

Melisandre has seen it in the flames of the future.

The last time it was life I brought to Storm’s End, shaped to look like onions. This time it is death, in the shape of Melisandre of Asshai.

Would a good man be doing this? “I am a man,” he said. “I am kind to my wife, but I have known other women. I have tried to be a father to my sons, to help make them a place in this world. Aye, I’ve broken laws, but I never felt evil until tonight. I would say my parts are mixed, m’lady. Good and bad.”

“A grey man,” she said. “Neither white nor black, but partaking of both. Is that what you are, Ser Davos?”

“If half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil.”

“Speak not that name, ser. Lest you draw his black eye upon us.

“You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows.”

His whispers scurried across the lapping water like a line of mice on soft pink feet.

There are worse ways to die than warm and drunk.

I knew a brother drowned himself in wine once. It was a poor vintage, though, and his corpse did not improve it.”

Dolorous Edd opined that glass knives were about as useful as nipples on a knight’s breastplate,

Had Varys’s little birds failed him for once?

Even spiders must nod, he supposed …

Bronn could not read, so he asked impudent questions.

“My nephew is tenderhearted.” “Are you certain he’s a Lannister?”

They should be thankful they have the breath to curse.

If Cersei has someone stalking me tonight, he must be disguised as a rat.

The silver in Symon’s tongue seemed to have turned to lead.

“A little fear will help him reach those high notes.”

The smell of him would have gagged a rat.

A whore learns to see the man, not his garb, or she turns up dead in an alley.”

“You ought to dress in black feathers, Varys, you’re as bad an omen as any raven.”

“She’s my sister. The man who kills his own blood is cursed forever in the sight of gods and men.

suck gravy off my titties

Bakers will knead her breasts with floured hands.”

“You are sorry, but you do not believe me.

“You’re no prince now, just a hostage.”

She has teats like empty wineskins, dry and withered.”

She had to flee, or else she would have started hitting him.

It was a terrible face, its mouth twisted, its eyes flaring and full of hate. Is that what a god looked like?

“Gods are not mocked, girl.”

“Some men have many names. Weasel. Arry. Arya.”

A man does not fly like a bird, but one foot moves and then another and one day a man is there, and a king dies.”