QuoteProject
When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?" Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit. I smell hot bread baking. I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf. I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. "I don't smell anything," she said.
George R. R. Martin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote evokes memories tied to familial love and nostalgia through sensory experiences.

In this quote, the speaker reflects on the many scents that remind them of home, family, and cherished memories associated with their past. Each scent symbolizes a deeper connection to loved ones and moments shared, revealing how sensory experiences can evoke powerful emotions and memories, highlighting the warmth and complexity of familial bonds.

Themes

MemoriesFamilyNostalgiaHomeScent

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote to inspire family gatherings or events focused on reminiscing about the past.

More from George R. R. Martin

One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
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.
George R. R. MartinRead
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: “Not today.
George R. R. MartinRead
I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.’ He turned to face the hall, that sea of pale faces. ‘I 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

Similar quotes

All of these things we do without children, and suddenly we don't do them anymore, and it comes home to us in a real way, that it's very different to have the responsibility of a child.
Joan DidionRead
The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all.
Benjamin SpockRead
T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Clement Clarke MooreRead
My mother, she didn't believe in praise. She'd never say anything was great. I think that's quite Northern, to not make people feel too good. I didn't mind if she was proud of me or not, it didn't bother me. I was never trying to please her.
Victoria WoodRead
parenting isn't a noun but a verb--an ongoing process instead of an accomplishment. And that no matter how many years you put into the job, the learning curve is, well, fairly flat.
Jodi PicoultRead
In the life of husband and wife together, fatherhood and motherhood represent such a sublime "novelty" and richness as can only be approached "on one's knees".
Pope John Paul IiRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.