Writer Quotes by George R. R. Martin

I have always been a dark writer.

— George R. R. Martin

Books are dead men talking.

— George R. R. Martin

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

— George R. R. Martin

Sleep is good, he said, And books are better.

— George R. R. Martin

I've never been a fast writer.

— George R. R. Martin

The man who never reads lives only one.

— George R. R. Martin

Don't write outlines; I hate outlines.

— 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 never finished any of my early stories. They were all beginnings, an endless number of beginnings.

— George R. R. Martin

All fiction has to have a certain amount of truth in it to be powerful.

— George R. R. Martin

I tend to write one character at a time. But I don't write the entirety of one character at a time.

— George R. R. Martin

Not all books are for all people. We read for different reasons.

— George R. R. Martin

One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.

— George R. R. Martin

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

— George R. R. Martin

You want people to be eager for your book; the downside is when the people forget the series even exists.

— 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…

— 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…

— George R. R. Martin

The most important thing for any aspiring writer, is to read! And not just the sort of thing you're trying to write,…

— George R. R. Martin

One of the hardest parts of writing is writing from the gut or the heart or something like that rather than intellectually.

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— George R. R. Martin

It’s being ready to accept rejection. You can work on a book for two years and get it published, and it’s like…

— George R. R. Martin

The best writing advice I had was [in] ‘Heinlein’s Rules for Writers’ by (American science fiction author) Robert A. Heinlein. His first…

— 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,…

— George R. R. Martin

I always give my students exercises where they really have to open a vein and bleed all over the paper and that's…

— George R. R. Martin

There are writers, and I know some of them, who are very disciplined. Who write, like, four pages a day, every day.…

— George R. R. Martin

I have many books that I want to write; I'd like to think that I'll be around for another 20 years or…

— 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…

— George R. R. Martin

I get up every day and work in the morning. I have my coffee and get to work. On good days I…

— George R. R. Martin

I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end…

— George R. R. Martin

All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not…

— George R. R. Martin

A lot of writing takes place in the subconscious, and it's bound to have an effect.

— George R. R. Martin

It's different for every writer. It's not a career for anyone who needs security. It's a career for gamblers. It's a career…

— George R. R. Martin

There are two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail. The…

— George R. R. Martin

When the writing is going really well, whole days and weeks go by, and I suddenly realise I have all these unpaid…

— George R. R. Martin

As a writer, my goal, (which I'm never going to achieve, and I know that, and no writer can achieve that,) but…

— George R. R. Martin

I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who…

— George R. R. Martin