There is magic in my universe, but it's pretty low magic compared to other fantasies.

George R. R. Martin

If you're going to write about war, which my books are about, wars are nasty things. I think it's sort of a cheap, easy way out to write a war story in which no one ultimately dies.

George R. R. Martin

One of the things I love, and I'm a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable.

George R. R. Martin

I don't know if I have any particular views about women in positions of power, though I do think it's more difficult for women, particularly in a Medieval setting. They have the additional problem that they're a woman and people don't want them in a position of power in an essentially patriarchal society.

George R. R. Martin

The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems like real life is flickering by and you're hardly a part of it. You remember the events in your books better than you remember the events that actually took place when you were writing them.

George R. R. Martin

I believe that a writer learns from every story he writes, and when you try different things, you learn different lessons. Working with other writers, as in Hollywood or in a shared world series, will also strengthen your skills, by exposing you to new ways of seeing the work, and different approaches to certain creative challenges.

George R. R. Martin

I work for two years on a book and it comes out and two days later I've got my first e-mail: When is the next one coming out?

George R. R. Martin

With a book I am the writer and I am also the director and I'm all of the actors and I'm the special effects guy and the lighting technician: I'm all of that. So if it's good or bad, it's all up to me.

George R. R. Martin

An awful lot of fantasy, and even some great fantasy, falls into the mistake of assuming that a good man will be a good king, that all that is necessary is to be a decent human being and when you're king everything will go swimmingly.

George R. R. Martin

There are some examples of medieval kings who were terrible human beings but were nevertheless good kings.

George R. R. Martin

I have idea files of books that I want to write one of these days, stories I want to write one of these days, but I'll probably never get to them.

George R. R. Martin

It's like these ideas, these characters, kind of bubble up inside me, and one day they're not there, and the next day they are there. They're alive, and they're whispering in my head and all that stuff, and I want to write about those things.

George R. R. Martin

There has to be a level of joy of what you're doing.

George R. R. Martin

I can see a scene in my head, and when I try to get it down in words on paper, the words are clunky; the scene is not coming across right. So frustrating. And there are days where it keeps flowing. Open the floodgates, and there it is. Pages and pages coming. Where the hell does this all come from? I don't know.

George R. R. Martin

One of the big breakthroughs, I think for me, was reading Robert A. Heinlein's four rules of writing, one of which was, 'You must finish what you write.' I never had any problem with the first one, 'You must write' - I was writing since I was a kid. But I never finished what writing.

George R. R. Martin

Boy, there are days where I get up and say 'Where the hell did my talent go? Look at this crap that I'm producing here. This is terrible. Look, I wrote this yesterday. I hate this, I hate this.'

George R. R. Martin

Writing is hard. I mean, I sit there and work at it.

George R. R. Martin

I know some writers can write on the road, but I'm not one of them.

George R. R. Martin

I was a novelist first. But in the mid-'80s, I did work in television for ten years. And yes, that was frequently the reaction to my scripts. People would say, 'You know, George, this is great. We love it, a terrific script, but it would cost five times our budget to shoot this.'

George R. R. Martin

I have always been a dark writer.

George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes

There is magic in my universe, but it's pretty low magic compared to other fantasies.

If you're going to write about war, which my books are about, wars are nasty things. I think it's sort of a cheap, easy way out to write a war story in which no one ultimately dies.

One of the things I love, and I'm a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable.

The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems like real life is flickering by and you're hardly a part of it. You remember the events in your books better than you remember the events that actually took place when you were writing them.

I work for two years on a book and it comes out and two days later I've got my first e-mail: When is the next one coming out?

With a book I am the writer and I am also the director and I'm all of the actors and I'm the special effects guy and the lighting technician: I'm all of that. So if it's good or bad, it's all up to me.

An awful lot of fantasy, and even some great fantasy, falls into the mistake of assuming that a good man will be a good king, that all that is necessary is to be a decent human being and when you're king everything will go swimmingly.

There are some examples of medieval kings who were terrible human beings but were nevertheless good kings.

I have idea files of books that I want to write one of these days, stories I want to write one of these days, but I'll probably never get to them.

It's like these ideas, these characters, kind of bubble up inside me, and one day they're not there, and the next day they are there. They're alive, and they're whispering in my head and all that stuff, and I want to write about those things.

There has to be a level of joy of what you're doing.

One of the big breakthroughs, I think for me, was reading Robert A. Heinlein's four rules of writing, one of which was, 'You must finish what you write.' I never had any problem with the first one, 'You must write' - I was writing since I was a kid. But I never finished what writing.

Boy, there are days where I get up and say 'Where the hell did my talent go? Look at this crap that I'm producing here. This is terrible. Look, I wrote this yesterday. I hate this, I hate this.'

Writing is hard. I mean, I sit there and work at it.

I know some writers can write on the road, but I'm not one of them.

I was a novelist first. But in the mid-'80s, I did work in television for ten years. And yes, that was frequently the reaction to my scripts. People would say, 'You know, George, this is great. We love it, a terrific script, but it would cost five times our budget to shoot this.'

I have always been a dark writer.