“The fact is, the king was a good deal more than a king, he was a man; and when a man is a man, you can't knock it out of him.”

“The good man is free, even if he is a slave. The evil man is a slave, even if he is a king.”

“As king, your desires must be stronger than any other. You must be more magnificent, more easily angered than everyone else! He should be both pure and chaotic, a man who was more real than any other man. Only through this could your subjects be impressed by their king, and only through this would the message ‘if I was king, such would be my wonder’ be imprinted upon their hearts.”

“I was a man before I was a king, and no true man walks away when a friend needs him.”

“If I could explain a head in a barrel to the King, he thought, I can explain a man in a tanpit to a Bishop. But I'd sooner be more certain of the facts.”

“Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself ... swore to myself ... that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies ... now I can't even tell one from the other.”