George R. R. Martin quotes - page 5

I find religion and spirituality fascinating. I would like to believe this isn't the end and there's something more, but I can't convince the rational part of me that that makes any sense whatsoever. (George R. R. Martin)
I try to make the readers feel they've lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a friend is killed, you should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. If somebody dies and you just go get more popcorn, it's a superficial experience isn't it? View quote
George R. R. Martin
I have a huge emotional attachment to characters I've created, especially the viewpoint characters. View quote
George R. R. Martin
'Dreamsongs' allows me to show the scope of my writing - with personal commentary that puts the works in context and includes some autobiographical details intended to reveal how each piece came to be, what it represents, and how it has formed, or been informed by, my philosophy of writing. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
George R. R. Martin
A lot of writing takes place in the subconscious, and it's bound to have an effect. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Of course it's not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler and it never has been. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Don't write outlines; I hate outlines. View quote
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. View quote
George R. R. Martin
The real difference, to my mind, is between romantic fiction, which all these genres are a part of, and mimetic fiction, or naturalistic fiction. (George R. R. Martin)
Never forget who you are, the rest of the world will not, wear it like armor andit can never be used to hurt you. - Tyrion Lannister. View quote
George R. R. Martin
It is the people who speak to me, the men and women who once lived and loved and dreamed and grieved, just as we do. View quote
George R. R. Martin
The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart. View quote
George R. R. Martin
They may get invited to the premiere and they come out of the premiere looking like all of their children had just been gassed, with a stunned look on their face because everything has been changed. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I think that for science fiction, fantasy, and even horror to some extent, the differences are skin-deep. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I am much more a gardener than an architect. View quote
George R. R. Martin
I suppose I am still a believer in the now unfashionable "heroic" school, which says that history is shaped by individual men and women and the choices that they make, by deeds glorious and terrible. View quote
George R. R. Martin
There are many different kinds of writers, I like to use the analogy of architects and gardeners. View quote
George R. R. Martin
With great power comes great responsibility, Stan Lee once wrote. Spidey's credo articulates the basic premise of every superhero universe, including ours. But Lord Acton wrote that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The tension between those two truths is where the drama comes in. My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight. View quote
George R. R. Martin
Historical processes have never much interested me, but history is full of stories, full of triumph and tragedy and battles won and lost. It is the people who speak to me, the men and women who once lived and loved and dreamed and grieved, just as we do. Though some may have had crowns on their heads or blood on their hands, in the end they were not so different from you and me, and therein lies their fascination. I suppose I am still a believer in the now unfashionable "heroic" school, which says that history is shaped by individual men and women and the choices that they make, by deeds glorious and terrible. (George R. R. Martin)