George R. R. Martin quotes - page 4

I worked out of Hollywood for 10 years and I had my heart broken half a dozen times, so I know all the things that can go wrong. (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. View quote
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. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Men's lives have meaning, not their deaths. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Power resides where men believe it to reside. View quote
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. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Men see what they expect to see. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I've always preferred writing about grey characters and human characters. Whether they are giants or elves or dwarves, or whatever they are, they're still human, and the human heart is still in conflict with the self. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I've been many kinds of writers in my career: novelist; tele-playwright; short story writer. As a high-school student, I wrote amateur pieces for fanzines, and I've written for Hollywood. View quote
George R. R. Martin
The vast majority of writers out there, they finish their books and no one cares whether their book is late or ever comes out at all. And then it comes out and two reviews are published and it sells 12 copies. View quote
George R. R. Martin
You always try to do your own thing. One of the things I wanted to do was to write a book that combines some of the best traits of contemporary fantasy with some of the traits of the historical novel. (George R. R. Martin)
In my 10 years that I spent out in TV and film, I had my shares of frustrations and annoyances and disappointments, but also I think it was, in the long run, it was very good for me in a whole bunch of ways. View quote
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? View quote
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. View quote
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.' View quote
George R. R. Martin
I have done a lot of work in Hollywood myself. I worked in television for roughly 10 years, from the mid-'80s to mid-'90s. And I was on staff at a couple of shows. I did some feature films, including originals and adaptations. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Start with short stories. After all, if you were taking up rock climbing, you wouldn't start with Mount Everest. So if you're starting fantasy, don't start with a nine-book series. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I knew that, when writing a book, you're not constrained by a budget. You're not constrained by what you can do, in terms of the special effects technology. You're not limited to any particular running time. View quote
George R. R. Martin
'Rome' was one of my favourite shows, and I wish HBO had given it three more seasons 'cause I would have loved to continue watching it. View quote
George R. R. Martin
It's really irritating when you open a book, and 10 pages into it you know that the hero you met on page one or two is gonna come through unscathed, because he's the hero. This is completely unreal, and I don't like it. (George R. R. Martin)
Unfortunately in television, for whatever reason, fantasy became thought of as a kids' genre. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I grew up with four T.V. channels. If you missed a show, you missed it. You gotta wait a week for the next one. I'd mail-order books: take a quarter, get an envelope, send off for it and wait until it arrived. I grew up waiting for things. View quote
George R. R. Martin
As much as I love historical fiction, my problem with historical fiction is that you always know what's going to happen. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I'm a huge fan of Tolkien. I read those books when I was in junior high school and high school, and they had a profound effect on me. I'd read other fantasy before, but none of them that I loved like Tolkien. View quote
George R. R. Martin