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" I had this desire to see the world. I couldn't see any of it, but I saw it in my imagination, and that's why I always read books, and I could go to Mars or Middle Earth or the Hyborian age. "
George R. R. Martin
Imagination
Desire
World
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" You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn't give you the power to reform, or improve, or build. "
George R. R. Martin
Build
Destroy
Improve
" 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
Hero
Book
You
" 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
Work
Love
People
" 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
People
Society
Power
" I have many books that I want to write; I'd like to think that I'll be around for another 20 years or so and write another dozen novels, probably some sort of imaginative literature... Never again another seven-volume saga. "
George R. R. Martin
Think
Literature
Like
" Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories. "
George R. R. Martin
Our
Story
Heroes
" Don't write outlines; I hate outlines. "
George R. R. Martin
Hate
Write
Outlines
" When the writing is going really well, whole days and weeks go by, and I suddenly realise I have all these unpaid bills and, my God, I haven't unpacked, and the suitcase has been sitting there for three weeks. "
George R. R. Martin
Sitting
Days
God
" A lot of writing takes place in the subconscious, and it's bound to have an effect. "
George R. R. Martin
Place
Effect
Subconscious
" I know some writers can write on the road, but I'm not one of them. "
George R. R. Martin
Write
Writers
Know
" 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. "
George R. R. Martin
Literature
Two
Stupid
" 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. "
George R. R. Martin
Look
Tried
Like
" Unfortunately in television, for whatever reason, fantasy became thought of as a kids' genre. "
George R. R. Martin
Thought
Fantasy
Reason
" As Faulkner says, all of us have the capacity in us for great good and for great evil, for love but also for hate. I wanted to write those kinds of complex character in a fantasy, and not just have all the good people get together to fight the bad guy. "
George R. R. Martin
Hate
Character
Great
" 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. "
George R. R. Martin
Short
Story
Hollywood
" I have some other novels I want to write. I have a lot of short stories - I love the short story. "
George R. R. Martin
Write
Love
Short
" There was part of me that wanted to see the world and travel to distant places, but I could only do it in my imagination, so I read ferociously and imagined things. "
George R. R. Martin
Imagination
World
Travel
" 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. "
George R. R. Martin
Run
Me
Long
" Of course it's not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler and it never has been. "
George R. R. Martin
Good
Never
Been
" The success that the Tolkien books had redefined modern fantasy. "
George R. R. Martin
Success
Modern
Books
" Many writers will get a contract by selling chapters and outlines or something like that. I wrote the entire novel, and when it was all finished, I would give it to my agent and say, 'Well, here's a novel; sell it if you can.' And they would do that, and it was good because I never had anyone looking over my shoulder. "
George R. R. Martin
Never
Looking
Good
" I like grey characters; fantasy for too long has been focused on very stereotypical heroes and villains. "
George R. R. Martin
Grey
Fantasy
Long
" Writing is hard. I mean, I sit there and work at it. "
George R. R. Martin
Work
Writing
Hard
" There has to be a level of joy of what you're doing. "
George R. R. Martin
Joy
You
Level
" I do get invitations all of the time to play actual fantasy football, by the way, but I get the feeling that I'd like it too much. I have enough demands on my time. My fans would kill me. "
George R. R. Martin
Enough
Football
Feeling
" There is magic in my universe, but it's pretty low magic compared to other fantasies. "
George R. R. Martin
Pretty
Universe
Magic
" If you go all the way back, I've always written science-fiction, I've always written fantasy, I've always written horror stories and monster stories, right from the beginning of my career. I've always moved back and forth between the genres. I don't really recognise that there's a significant difference between them in some senses. "
George R. R. Martin
Back
You
Career
" The prejudice is still there, but it's breaking down. You have writers like Michael Chabon and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. He's a writer who's determined to break down genre barriers. He's done amazing things. "
George R. R. Martin
You
Done
Down
" There are writers, and I know some of them, who are very disciplined. Who write, like, four pages a day, every day. And it doesn't matter if their dog got run over by a car that day, or they won the Irish sweepstakes. I'm not one of those writers. "
George R. R. Martin
Know
Run
Car
" Whether you're a history buff or a fantasy fan, Druon's epic will keep you turning pages. This was the original game of thrones. If you like 'A Song of Ice and Fire', you will love 'The Accursed Kings'. "
George R. R. Martin
History
Game
Fire