One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
Men live their lives trapped in an eternal present, between the mists of memory and the sea of shadow that is all we know of the days to come.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the human experience of living in the moment while being affected by both memories and uncertainties of the future.
George R. R. Martin's quote conveys the idea that individuals are often caught in a continuous present, influenced by their past experiences and the unknown future. It suggests that while we strive to live in the present moment, our lives are shaped by memories of what has been and anxieties about what is yet to come, creating a complex interplay between time and existence.
Themes
PresentMemoryFutureExistenceTime
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of time and how it affects our lives.
More from George R. R. Martin
All quotes →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
It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp before they were five years old.
Robertson DaviesRead
when the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian.
Henri NouwenRead
One has only the choice between God and idolatry. There is no other possibility. For the faculty of worship is in us, and it is either directed somewhere into this world, or into another.
Simone WeilRead
Always remember that you belong to no one, and no one belongs to you. Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave everything in this world - so make the acquaintanceship of God now.
Lahiri MahasayaRead
I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.
Jean RacineRead
Do you suppose you will look the same when you are an old woman as you do now? Most folk have three faces—the face they get when they’re children, the face they own when they’re grown, and the face they’ve earned when they’re old. But when you live as long as I have, you get many more. I look nothing like I did when I was a wee thing of thirteen. You get the face you build your whole life, with work and loving and grieving and laughing and frowning.
Catherynne M. ValenteRead