Earth and water, soil and stone, oaks and elms and willows, they were here before us all and will still remain when we are gone. - George R. R. Martin

Of all the bright cruel lies they tell you, the crudest is the one called love.

I've been killing characters my entire career, maybe I'm just a bloody minded bastard, I don't know, [but] when my characters are in danger, I want you to be afraid to turn the page (and to do that) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps.

Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad.