One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
Of all the bright cruel lies they tell you, the cruelest is the one called love.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love can be a deceptive and painful experience, often filled with harsh truths.
In this quote, George R. R. Martin suggests that love, despite its beauty, can often be wrapped in falsehoods and painful realities. He emphasizes that the notion of love might be one of the most misleading and damaging ideas one can encounter, highlighting how it can lead to both emotional highs and devastating lows.
Themes
LoveTruthPainDeceptionEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the complexities of romantic relationships, this quote can illustrate the darker side of love.
More from George R. R. Martin
All quotes βI 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.
George R. R. MartinRead
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: βNot today.
George R. R. MartinRead
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.
George R. R. MartinRead
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.
George R. R. MartinRead
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.
George R. R. MartinRead
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My father had not been outside the house except to drive back and forth to work or sit out in the backyard, for months, nor had he seen his neighbors. Now he looked at them, from face to face, until he realized I had been loved by people he didn't even recognize. His heart filled up, warm again as it had not been in what seemed so long to him- save small forgotten moments with Buckley, the accidents of love that happened with his son. ~pgs 209-210; Buckley, Lindsey and Jack on Susie
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Matthew,' she said, 'have you ever loved someone and it became yourself?' For a moment he did not answer. Taking up the decanter he held it to the light. 'Robin can go anywhere, do anything,' Nora continued, 'because she forgets, and I nowhere because I remember.' She came toward him. 'Matthew,' she said, 'you think I have always been like this. Once I was remorseless, but this is another love β it goes everywhere; there is no place for it to stop β it rots me away.
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Love is a learned behavior. If you don't learn how to love yourself someone will teach you how to hate yourself.
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Come away, come away, death,_x000D_ _x000D_ And in sad cypres let me be laid;_x000D_ _x000D_ Fly away, fly away, breath;_x000D_ _x000D_ I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
William ShakespeareRead