Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old. - George R. R. Martin

But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.

Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem … but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes.

el maestre amaba los libros tanto como Samwell Tarly. Comprendía cómo se podía sumergir uno en ellos, como si cada página fuera un agujero abierto que daba a otro mundo.