Sleep Is Good, He Said, And Books

Turtles Have Always Been My Sigil, I Suppose. When I Was A Kid, Growing Up In Bayonne, Nj, I Lived In A Federal Housing Project, And We Were Not Allowed To Have A Dog Or Cats. The Only Pets I Could Have Were Turtles. So, I Had An Entire Toy Castle Filled With Dime-store Turtles. I Gave Them All Names, And Since They Were Living In A Toy Castle, I Decided They Were All Knights And Kingsand I Made Up Stories About How They Killed Each Other And Betrayed Each Other And Fought For The Kingdom. So, Game Of Thrones, Actually Began With Turtles. I Decided Later To Recast It With Actual Human Beings.

When A Man Was Hurt You Took Him To The Maester, But What Could You Do When Your Maester Was Hurt?

You Could Make A Poultice Out Of Mud To Cool A Fever. You Could Plant Seeds In Mud And Grow A Crop To Feed Your Children. Mud Would Nourish You, Where Fire Would Only Consume You, But Fools And Children And Young Girls Would Choose Fire Every Time.

Jon Snow: I'm Not Afraid To Die. Mormont: Nor Life, I Hope.

For Men, The Answer Was Always The Same And Never Farther Away Than The Nearest Sword. For A Woman, A Mother, The Way Was Stonier And Harder To Know.