One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
If he must be alone, he would make solitude his armor.
Interpretation
Embracing solitude can provide strength and protection in difficult times.
This quote suggests that if a person finds themselves alone, rather than feeling defeated, they can choose to use solitude as a source of empowerment. It emphasizes the idea that solitude can be transformed into a tool for resilience, allowing one to face challenges with inner strength.
In practice
During a motivational speech on overcoming personal challenges.
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.
One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism, which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, sourpusses.
It's difficult because we tend to overrate the pain of failure. We fear it too much. That's research that emerges from psychology. We think it's going to be worse than it really is. And, I think, as we get a bit older, really after we leave school or college, we quickly stop experimenting.
My life wasn't beautiful and creative before I became politically active. My life was totally changed when I began to struggle.
I am above eighty years old; it is about time for me to be going. I have been forty years a slave and forty years free and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all.
The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.
Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! β but there is no peace.
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