George R. R. Martin

I had an encyclopedia with a list of flags in the back, so I would look at all these flags of China and Liberia and England and Denmark and whatever, and I learned all the different flags, and I tried to imagine what it would be like to be voyaging on some of these ships. ”

The distinction between literary and genre fiction is stupid and pernicious. It dates back to a feud between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James. James won, and it split literature into two streams. But it's a totally false dichotomy. ”

Unfortunately in television, for whatever reason, fantasy became thought of as a kids' genre. ”

I had a couple of friends, but I was mostly the kid with his nose in a book. ”

I've written some standalone novels, but a book series allows fans in. There's much more intense involvement. ”

If I was a soldier going to war, I'd be pretty scared the night before a battle. It's a scary thing. And I want my readers to feel that fear as they turn the page. ”

I'm one of those writers who say, 'I've enjoy having written.' ”

I have always been a dark writer. ”

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