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Give a thing a name and it will somehow come to be.
George R. R. Martin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Naming things gives them power and reality.

This quote suggests that by giving something a name, we are granting it existence and significance in our minds and reality. Naming allows us to conceptualize and communicate about things, influencing our perception and interaction with them.

Themes

NamePowerPerceptionExistenceReality

In practice

Example use cases

In a presentation about creativity, to emphasize the importance of naming in the creative process.

More from George R. R. Martin

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