George R. R. Martin

In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.

Art is not a democracy. People don't get to vote on how it ends.

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.

My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones.

Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. (Night's Watch Vow)