When you know what a man wants you know who he is, and how to move him.

In King's Landing there are two sorts of people; the players and the pieces.

The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling. (Varys)

The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems like real life is flickering by and you're hardly a part of it. You remember the events in your books better than you remember the events that actually took place when you were writing them.

I try to make the readers feel they've lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a friend is killed, you should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. If somebody dies and you just go get more popcorn, it's a superficial experience isn't it?

All fiction has to have a certain amount of truth in it to be powerful.