George R.R. Martin · 355 pages
Rating: (37.6K votes)
“The snail may leave a trail of slime behind him, but a little slime will do a man no harm, while if you dance with dragons, you must expect to burn.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“A great battle is a terrible thing," the old knight said, "but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“And the crow once called the raven black.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Never refuse a cup of wine or a horn of ale,” Ser Arlan had once told him, “it may be a year before you see another.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Some words are wind, ser. Some are treason.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Pain was as much a part of knighthood as were swords and shields.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Why give a horse to a man who cannot ride?”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Oak and iron, guard me well, or else I'm dead, and doomed to hell.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Hard things only grow harder if you put them off.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“The sword was not the kingdom, he says.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Reading books by candlelight will make you blind."
"I need the candlelight to see the words, ser."
"Do you want a clout in the ear?”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Even a hedge knight has his honor.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Trueborn children are made in a marriage bed and blessed by the Father and the Mother, but bastards are born of lust and weakness.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Sometimes it seemed as though he’d thumped his head on half the doors in Westeros, not to mention every beam in every inn from Dorne up to the Neck.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Every boy dreams of serving in the Kingsguard.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“All men are fools, and all men are knights where women are concerned.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Better a beggar than a thief.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Is that gallantry I smell, or just stupidity? The two scents are much alike, as I recall.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“I dreamed of you and a dead dragon, Egg's brother Daeron said to him. A great beast, huge, with wings so large they could cover this meadow. It had fallen on top of you, but you were alive and the dragon was dead.
And so he was, poor Baelor. Dreams were a treacherous ground on which to build.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“But peasant's pride is lordling's shame.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Three good men dead, to save a hedge knight's foot.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“May the Warrior grant me a smooth course and a quick victory.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“One foe at a time, that was what the old man always said.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Good armor and a good horse means a good ransom if I unseat him.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“We are one. Man, horse, lance, we are one beast of blood and wood and iron.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Would you rather die with honor intact or live with it besmirched?”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“I know that eggs do well to stay out of frying pans.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“The summers have been shorter since the last dragon died, and the winters longer and crueler.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“You go out into your world, and try and find the things that will be useful to you. Your weapons. Your tools. Your charms. You find a record, or a poem, or a picture of a girl that you pin to the wall and go, "Her. I'll try and be her. I'll try and be her - but here." You observe the way others walk, and talk, and you steal little bits of them - you collage yourself out of whatever you can get your hands on. You are like the robot Johnny 5 in Short Circuit, crying, "More input! More input for Johnny 5! as you rifle through books and watch films and sit in front of the television, trying to guess which of these things that you are watching - Alexis Carrington Colby walking down a marble staircase; Anne of Green Gables holding her shoddy suitcase; Cathy wailing on the moors; Courtney Love wailing in her petticoat; Dorothy Parker gunning people down; Grace Jones singing "Slave to the Rhythm" - you will need when you get out there. What will be useful. What will be, eventually, you?
And you will be quite on your own when you do all this. There is no academy where you can learn to be yourself; there is no line manager slowly urging you toward the correct answer. You are midwife to yourself, and will give birth to yourself, over and over, in dark rooms, alone.
And some versions of you will end in dismal failure - many prototypes won't even get out the front door, as you suddenly realize that no, you can't style-out an all-in-one gold bodysuit and a massive attitude problem in Wolverhampton. Others will achieve temporary success - hitting new land-speed records, and amazing all around you, and then suddenly, unexpectedly exploding, like the Bluebird on Coniston Water.
But one day you'll find a version of you that will get you kissed, or befriended, or inspired, and you will make your notes accordingly, staying up all night to hone and improvise upon a tiny snatch of melody that worked.
Until - slowly, slowly - you make a viable version of you, one you can hum every day. You'll find the tiny, right piece of grit you can pearl around, until nature kicks in, and your shell will just quietly fill with magic, even while you're busy doing other things. What your nature began, nature will take over, and start completing, until you stop having to think about who you'll be entirely - as you're too busy doing, now. And ten years will pass without you even noticing.
And later, over a glass of wine - because you drink wine now, because you are grown - you will marvel over what you did. Marvel that, at the time, you kept so many secrets. Tried to keep the secret of yourself. Tried to metamorphose in the dark. The loud, drunken, fucking, eyeliner-smeared, laughing, cutting, panicking, unbearably present secret of yourself. When really you were about as secret as the moon. And as luminous, under all those clothes.”
― Caitlin Moran, quote from How to Build a Girl
“Thinking that you can't protect the ones you love, you have to hope they're smart enough to save themselves.”
― Laura Ruby, quote from Bone Gap
“A second date always felt like an announcement at his age. And he never felt ready for the announcement.”
― Megan Abbott, quote from The Fever
“You need to ratchet down the crazy town.”
― A.E. Kirk, quote from Demons in Disguise
“the simple fact of bearing a responsibility can be something that gives meaning to life.”
― John Ajvide Lindqvist, quote from Little Star
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