One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
Children are a battle of a different sort. ... A battle without banners or warhorns but no less fierce.
Interpretation
Raising children is a challenging but meaningful endeavor that requires perseverance.
This quote by George R. R. Martin emphasizes that parenting is a significant challenge, akin to a battle, though it lacks the traditional markers of war. It highlights the intensity and struggle that comes with nurturing and raising children, acknowledging the emotional and physical toll it can take on parents, yet recognizing the value of this experience.
In practice
In a speech at a parenting workshop, I could use this quote to illustrate the challenges of raising children.
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.
The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.
But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.
The Black family of the future will foster our liberation, enhance our self-esteem, and shape our ideas and goals.
What is a family, after all, except memories? Haphazard and precious as the contents of a catch-all drawer in the kitchen.
This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.
I don't have to have a child come from my womb to have a connection. Children that are already born are beautiful to me. I can definitely be a mother to them.
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