“I’m frankly surprised by the show. There’s stupid things - there’s - sorry people who write the show and everybody who works on it and everything, but there’s stupid things on the show that they shouldn’t do. Like, why do they have to say “bitch” and kill all the women? You know? Because there are certain small ways in which the show is sort of gratuitously misogynistic when it doesn’t need to be. When I read the scripts, I cringe sometimes. Yeah, there’s a million other things you could say, you don’t need to do this. Or, um, you have killed every other female character who had more than a two-episode arc. Do you have to take this one? Charlie’s still around! Although she’s not a threat to the boys as a romantic interest because she’s gay.” — Misha on the misogyny of Supernatural (via strangepicturesofmishacollins)

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” —  Terry Pratchett (via celebrate-the-magic)

“Most of the writers I know are weird hybrids. There’s a strong streak of egomania coupled with extreme shyness. Writing’s kind of like exhibitionism in private. And there’s also a strange loneliness, and a desire to have some kind of conversation with people, but not a real great ability to do it in person.” — David Foster Wallace (via dulcetdecember)

Game of Thrones Meme ✖ 2/3 COLORS ✖ YELLOW

“My father’s father was kennelmaster at Casterly Rock. One autumn Lord Tytos came between a lion and her prey. The lioness didn’t give a shit that she was Lannister’s own sigil. Bitch tore into my lord’s horse and would have done for him too, but my grandfather came up with the hounds. Three of his dogs died running her off. My grandfather lost a leg, so Lannister paid him for it with lands and took his son to squire. The three dogs on our banner are the three that died, in the yellow of autumn grass.”

“Q: We discussed whether Robert loved his brother Renly or not. […] I never envisioned their relationship as more than lukewarm. (Jaime said Robert hardly could stomach his brothers (plural form)). Which is correct?

A: There are many different kinds of love. Robert was dutiful toward his brothers, and no doubt loved them in a way… but he didn’t necessarily like them. His relations with Stannis were always prickly. Renly was the baby of the family, and spent little time in Robert’s company until he was old enough to come to court. I suspect Robert was fond of the boy, but not especially close to him.

Stannis always resented being given Dragonstone while Renly got Storm’s End, and took that as a slight… but it’s not necessarily true that Robert meant it that way. The Targaryen heir apparent had always been titled Prince of Dragonstone. By making Stannis the Lord of Dragonstone, Robert affirmed his brother’s status as heir (which he was, until Joff’s birth a few years later). Robert could just as lawfully retained both castles for his sons, and made Joffrey the Prince of Dragonstone and Tommen the Lord of Storm’s End. Giving them to his brothers instead was another instance of his great, but rather careless, generosity.” —

a fan and George R. R. Martin, 9/11/1999

(Yet another interesting quote I found while looking for other things. Oh, Robert… oh, Stannis.)

“Clearly, all Margaery really needed to know about politics she learned at the feet of her fearsome grandmother, Lady Olenna Tyrell. Imagine Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess completely stripped of even the pretense of being polite to anyone for any reason and you’ve got this delightful old cutthroat, played with deadpan panache by leather-catsuit legend Diana Rigg. In short order she insults Renly, her son, her dead husband, her female friends and relatives and handmaidens, the Lannisters, the waiter – pretty much everyone but the three women sitting at the table, talking treason about the King. Sansa’s white-knuckle terror over the very idea of saying something negative about Joffrey for others to hear is so obvious you want to reach through the screen and wrap her in a blanket or something (man, Sophie Turner rules), which only proves how fearless and confident Lady Olenna is in her own security and power. She’s rich, powerful, well-connected, intelligent, and just plain out of fucks to give. They say the graveyards of the world are full of indispensable men, but she’s not a man, is she? What a thrill to watch three females decide their own fates for a change.” — Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone (x)

“I’ve been around a long time, and young men, if there is one thing I know, it is that the only way to kiss a girl for the first time is to look like you want to and intend to, and move in fast enough to seem eager but slow enough to give her a chance to say “So anyway …” and look up as if she’s trying to remember your name.” — Roger Ebert (via crowe-thompson)

“Indeed, the idea of ‘winning the girl’ – of overcoming female objections or resistance through repeated and frequently escalating efforts – is central to most of our modern romantic narratives. (Female persistence, by contrast, is viewed as pathetic.) And the more I think about instances of creepiness, harassment and stalking that culminate in either the threat or actuality of sexual assault, the more I’m convinced that a massive part of the problem is this socially sanctioned idea that men are fundamentally entitled to persist. Because if men are meant to persist, then women who say no must only be rejecting the attempt, not the man himself, so that every separate attempt becomes one of a potentially infinite number of keys which might just fit the lock of the woman’s approval. She’s not the one who’s allowed to say no, not really; she should be silent and passive as a locked door, waiting patiently while the man runs through however many keys he can be bothered trying. And if he gets sick of this lengthy process and just breaks in? Well, frustration under those circumstances is only natural. Either the door shouldn’t have been there to impede him, or it shouldn’t have been locked.” — The Creepiness Question (via notemily)

“Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.” —

Martin Luther

10 Famous Writers on How to Drink

(via flavorpill)

“… At the start of the story Lily dies to keep her son alive. At the end of the story, Harry lies, pretending to be dead on the ground and it’s a mother who saves him again because she’s trying to get to her own son. So that was my, you know, that was closing a circle. He was saved there by Lily and he’s saved there by Narcissa.”

“And, actually, then we did the scene in the vault where Loki finds the sort of big, dark secret of his personal history. And I think after the first couple of takes, Tony leaned across and said, ‘Have you got a good agent?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I think so.’ And he said, ‘You’re going to need it.’” — Tom Hiddleston, on Thor and Anthony Hopkins (x)

“I do not think that even Power or Domination is the real centre of my story. It provides the theme of a War, about something dark and threatening enough to seem at that time of supreme importance, but that is mainly ‘a setting’ for characters to show themselves. The real theme for me is about something much more permanent and difficult: Death and Immortality: the mystery of the love of the world in the hearts of a race ‘doomed’ to leave and seemingly lose it; the anguish in the hearts of a race ‘doomed’ not to leave it, until its whole evil-aroused story is complete.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, Letters, #186  (via stoneofthehapless)

“The way to love someone is to lightly run your finger over that person’s soul until you find a crack, and then gently pour your love into that crack.” — Keith Miller (via hellanne)

“

During the act of reading engaging fiction, we can lose all sense of time. By the final chapter of the right book, we feel changed in our own lives, even if what we’ve read is entirely made up.

Research says that’s because while you’re engaged in fiction—unlike nonfiction—you’re given a safe arena to experience emotions without the need for self-protection. Since the events you’re reading about do not follow you into your own life, you can feel strong emotions freely.

[…]

The key metric the researchers used is “emotionally transported,” or how deeply connected we are to the story. Previous research has shown that when we read stories about people experiencing specific emotions or events it triggers activity in our brains as if we were right there in the thick of the action.

” —

New study by Dutch researchers confirms previous theories that reading fiction makes you a better person by expanding your capacity for empathy.

Also see how storytelling makes us human.

(via explore-blog)

“Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes.” —

Stephen Colbert (via souls-of-my-shoes)

———————-

When I went to intern for the Colbert Report I had the tiniest concern that Stephen might have some negative “talent” traits. I’ve worked in a lot of places and ruined the magic for many things for myself so it was a small concern. 

Instead Stephen and the staff and crew of the Report renewed a sense of wonder in me. The work they put in, how much they care, and how sincere they all are. But I’ll always remember, after having asked him about didactic-ism and receiving a response involving quotes from Joyce that the next week he came to me and went “So I was thinking about didactic-ism over the weekend…” 

Bitterness and cynicism are easy to fall into, I remind myself of that daily and try to keep that small flame in my heart alive. I owe it to everyone else and I have people like Stephen to thank for that. 

(via the-full-grohac)