One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
Words are wind, Brienne told herself. They cannot hurt you. Let them wash over you.
Interpretation
Words can be empty; do not allow them to affect your emotional well-being.
This quote emphasizes the power of resilience against the negative impact of words. Brienne's self-affirmation serves as a reminder to not be swayed by the opinions or insults of others, suggesting that true strength lies in ignoring harmful words and allowing them to pass without affecting one's self-worth.
In practice
When giving a speech about self-esteem, I quoted, 'Words are wind, Brienne told herself.'
One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: βNot today.
I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.β He turned to face the hall, that sea of pale faces. βI wish I had enough poison for you all. You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, yet there it is. I am innocent, but I will get no justice here.
But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.
I write from this tight third-person viewpoint, where each chapter is seen through the eyes of one individual character. When I'm writing that character, I become that character and identify with that character.
If there were no night, we would not appreciate the day, nor could we see the stars and the vastness of the heavens. We must partake of the bitter with the sweet. There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless.
The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives.
If a man does not work at necessary and good things, then he will work at unnecessary and stupid things
The height of foolishness is to discard an opportunity without full investigation
All life battles teach us something, even those we lose
A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedaemonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but every goose can."
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