110+ George R. R. Martin Quotes On Reading, Writing And Fantasy

George R. R. Martin is an American novelist and short story writer in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known for his series of epic fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the HBO series Game of Thrones. He has written several other novels and works of short fiction, as well as screenplays for television and film. Following is our collection on famous quotes by George R. R. Martin on reading, writing, fantasy.

Top 10 George R. R. Martin Quotes

1. When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.
2. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.
3. When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.
4. A Lannister always pays his debts.
5. For the night is dark and full of terrors.
6. There are no men like me. There's only me
7. A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things.
8. The only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid.
9. The true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves.
10. The Lord of Winterfell would always be a Stark

George R. R. Martin Image Quotes

A Lannister always pays his debts. — George R. R. Martin

There are no men like me. There's only me — George R. R. Martin

The only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid. — George R. R. Martin

The more people you love, the weaker you are. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Short Quotes

• In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.
• If there are gods, why is the world so full of pain and injustice?' 'Because of men like you.
• It was that white cloak that soiled me, not the other way around.
• Anyone can be killed.
• Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.
• The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.
• Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
• And I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things.
• You know nothing, Jon Snow
• When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.

George R. R. Martin Quotes About Reading

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one. — George R. R. Martin

My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow. — George R. R. Martin

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. — George R. R. Martin

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. — George R. R. Martin

Nothing bores me more than books where you read two pages and you know exactly how it's going to come out. I want twists and turns that surprise me, characters that have a difficult time and that I don't know if they're going to live or die. — George R. R. Martin

We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. — George R. R. Martin

The man who never reads lives only one. — George R. R. Martin

I was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. I grew up in the projects. I never went anywhere. But I have lived a thousand lives and I’ve loved a thousand loves. I’ve walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time. Because I read. — George R. R. Martin

I feel satisfaction at the end of the day when I've written a scene that I really like or when I write a good line of dialogue that I read out to my wife or something like that. But there's also days where it's just bloody agony and I go, 'ugh, this is such crap! Why did I think I had any talent? — George R. R. Martin

I want you to be afraid to turn the page (and to do that) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes About Writing

Writing is like sausage making in my view; you'll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what's gone into it. — George R. R. Martin

The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real, for a moment at least, that long magic moment before we wake. — George R. R. Martin

Some writers enjoy writing, I am told. Not me. I enjoy having written. — George R. R. Martin

I've always taken that as my guiding principle and the rest is just set dressing. You can have dragons in it, or aliens and starships, or a western about a gunslinger, or even literary fiction, and ultimately you're still writing about the human heart in conflict with itself. — 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 rule is that you must write, and I was already doing that, but his second rule is, ‘You must finish what you write,’ and that had a big impact on me. — 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. — George R. R. Martin

I do play all the characters, when I write them, one after another. If they actually had to film me, the only one I could play would be Samwell Tarly or Hot Pie. — George R. R. Martin

I think my very earliest stories were all intellectual exercises and I was writing from experiences I had never had about characters who were about an inch deep. — George R. R. Martin

Ideas are cheap. I have more ideas now than I could ever write up. To my mind, it's the execution that is all-important. — George R. R. Martin

I am not going to get into it myself, except to say (1) if I am writing "boy fiction," who are all those boys with breasts who keep turning up by the hundreds at my signings and readings? and (2) thank you, geek girls! I love you all. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes About Fantasy

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you. — George R. R. Martin

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. — George R. R. Martin

Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?' 'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him. — George R. R. Martin

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle Earth. — George R. R. Martin

An awful lot of fantasy, and even some great fantasy, falls into the mistake of assuming that a good man will be a good king, that all that is necessary is to be a decent human being and when you're king everything will go swimmingly. — George R. R. Martin

I do know what’s been useless to me is the online fantasy name generators. I’ve tried those a few times, and they say, ‘Just hit this button and we’ll generate 50 fantasy names,’ and they all turn out to be ‘Grisknuckle’. — 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, be that fantasy, SF, comic books, whatever. You need to read everything. — George R. R. Martin

I love fantasy. I grew up reading fantasy. But, I wanted to put a somewhat different spin on it. The whole trope of absolute good versus absolute evil, which was wonderful in the hands of J.R. Tolkien, became cliche and rote in the hands of the many Tolkien imitators that followed. — George R. R. Martin

There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La. — George R. R. Martin

Fiction is lies; we're writing about people who never existed and events that never happened when we write fiction, whether its science fiction or fantasy or western mystery stories or so-called literary stories. All those things are essentially untrue. But it has to have a truth at the core of it. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes About Writer

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. — 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 gardeners just dig a hole and plant the seed and see what comes up. — George R. R. Martin

The truth of it is, writers do have peculiar relationships with their characters. They are our children in more senses than one. They are born of our imaginations, carry much of ourselves in them, and embody whatever dreams we dream of immortality. — 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 my goal is to make you almost live the books. I want you to fall through that page and feel as if these things are happening to you. — 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 of ups and downs. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes About Work

Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you — 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? — George R. R. Martin

Start trying to work out who deserves what, and before long you'll spend the rest of your days weeping for each and every person in the world. — George R. R. Martin

Most people were startled to find out there were books that preceded Game Of Thrones. I'm a case of working forty years to be an overnight success. — George R. R. Martin

My biggest dream was to ruin the lives of my readers and crush their souls... And I really think that worked out pretty well for me. — 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 you may as well have thrown it down a well. It’s not all champagne and doing interviews with The New York Times. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes About Book

People are going to die who don't die in the books, so even the book readers will be unhappy. So everybody better be on their toes. David and D.B. (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss co-creators of 'Game Of Thrones') are even bloodier than I am. — George R. R. Martin

Sam loved to listen to music and make his own songs, to wear soft velvets, to play in the castle kitchen beside the cooks, drinking in the rich smells as he snitched lemon cakes and blueberry tarts. His passions were books and kittens and dancing, clumsy as he was. — 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

Names are hard. I have a library of What to Name Your Baby books, and I’m always picking up new books, and books of baby names from other countries. I like cool-sounding names. — George R. R. Martin

If the novels are still being read in 50 years, no one is ever going to say: 'What's great about that sixth book is that he met his deadline!' It will be about how the whole thing stands up. — George R. R. Martin

Ten years from now, no one is going to care how quickly the books came out. The only thing that will matter, the only thing anyone will remember, is how good they were. That's my main concern, and always will be. — George R. R. Martin

I've been very lucky. There were times when I was afraid I would never sell another book, but I never doubted I'd write another book. — George R. R. Martin

Not all books are for all people. We read for different reasons. — George R. R. Martin

No one will be alive by the last book. In fact, they all die in the fifth. The sixth book will be just a thousand-page description of snow blowing across the graves. — George R. R. Martin

Books are dead men talking. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Quotes About People

The more people you love, the weaker you are. — George R. R. Martin

People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up. — George R. R. Martin

The common people pray for rain, healthy children and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. — George R. R. Martin

Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can't make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people. — George R. R. Martin

Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad. — George R. R. Martin

I believe that women are many different types of people. There are brave women, there are cowardly women, there are altruistic women, there are selfish women. Most people are a combination of the same. — George R. R. Martin

Art is not a democracy. People don't get to vote on how it ends. — George R. R. Martin

The wide world is full of people wanting help, Jon. Would that some could find the courage to help themselves. - Lord Commander Mormont — George R. R. Martin

I know who's going to be on the throne [in the Gameof Thrones], at the end, so I better not say. But, there will be a few people sitting on it, before the end. — George R. R. Martin

Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers. — George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin Famous Quotes And Sayings

A Lannister always pays his debts. — George R. R. Martin

There are no men like me. There's only me — George R. R. Martin

The only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid. — George R. R. Martin

It all goes back and back," Tyrion thought, "to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads. — George R. R. Martin

When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," she said sadly. "When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before." -Daenerys Targaryen — George R. R. Martin

The more people you love, the weaker you are. — George R. R. Martin

My brother is undoubtedly arrogant," Tyrion Lannister replied. "My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you? — George R. R. Martin

Woman? Is that meant to insult me? I would return the slap, if I took you for a man. - Daenerys Targaryen — George R. R. Martin

Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted her his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father's head. Sansa would never make that mistake again. — George R. R. Martin

I crossed a thousand leagues to come to you, and lost the best part of me along the way. Don't tell me to leave. — George R. R. Martin

Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs." And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king. — George R. R. Martin

Swift as a deer. Quiet as a shadow. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Quick as a snake. Calm as still water. — George R. R. Martin

I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid. — George R. R. Martin

My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever. — George R. R. Martin

In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which. — George R. R. Martin

A hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he'll look you straight in the face. — George R. R. Martin

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. — George R. R. Martin

Generally speaking, I'm much more in favour of penises entering vaginas than axes entering skulls. But the world seems to accept the violence a lot easier than the sex. — George R. R. Martin

Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word. — George R. R. Martin

What's dead may never die. — George R. R. Martin

Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. — George R. R. Martin

The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling. (Varys) — George R. R. Martin

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. — George R. R. Martin

Fear cuts deeper than swords. — George R. R. Martin

There are no happy endings. — George R. R. Martin

The unseen enemy is always the most fearsome. — George R. R. Martin

We look up at the same stars and see such different things." - Jon Snow — George R. R. Martin

Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm. — George R. R. Martin

An artist has an obligation to tell the truth. [...] that the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves. We are the monsters. (And the heroes too). Each of us has within himself the capacity for great good, and great evil. — George R. R. Martin

I don't want to be a queen. I want to be the queen. — George R. R. Martin

I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one. — George R. R. Martin

Madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land. — George R. R. Martin

My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel. — George R. R. Martin

Love is madness, and lust is poison. — George R. R. Martin

She was Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, and there was no one in the world that she could trust. — George R. R. Martin

As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons. — George R. R. Martin

For herself, she wanted sleet and ice, howling winds, thunder to shake the very stones of the Red Keep. She wanted a storm to match her rage. — George R. R. Martin

His cloak was his crowning glory; sable, thick and black and soft as sin. — George R. R. Martin

That was the way of this cold world, where men fished the sea and dug in the ground and died, whilst women brought forth short-lived children from beds of blood and pain. — George R. R. Martin

If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil. (Melisandre of Asshai) — George R. R. Martin

I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. — George R. R. Martin

The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them. — George R. R. Martin

There's no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it. — George R. R. Martin

The heart lies and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in a way knowing the truth. — George R. R. Martin

There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: “Not today. — George R. R. Martin

Men live their lives trapped in an eternal present, between the mists of memory and the sea of shadow that is all we know of the days to come. — George R. R. Martin

The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong. — George R. R. Martin

The wildlings seemed to think Ygritte a great beauty because of her hair; red hair was rare among the free folk, and those who had it were said to be kissed by fire, which was supposed to be lucky. — George R. R. Martin

Faith is like porridge. Better with milk and honey. — George R. R. Martin

Has my tale turned you speechless? Come, curse me or kiss me or call me a liar. Something. — George R. R. Martin

Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm, or the gods, or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. — George R. R. Martin

A bruise is a lesson... and each lesson makes us better. — George R. R. Martin

When you play a game of thrones you win or you die. — George R. R. Martin

Power resides only where men believe it resides. [...] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow. — George R. R. Martin

Sorcery is the sauce fools spoon over failure to hide the flavor of their own incompetence. — George R. R. Martin

The years leech at a man's memories, even those he has vowed never to forget. — George R. R. Martin

Laughter is poison to fear. — George R. R. Martin

You should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. — George R. R. Martin

Littlefinger: A trade envoy from Lys once observed to me that Lord Stannis must love his daughter very well, since he'd erected hundreds of statues of her all along the walls of Dragonstone. Tyrion: My lord, those are gargoyles. — George R. R. Martin

The real issue lies in the North beyond the Wall. Stannis becomes one of the few characters fully to understand that, which is why in spite of everything he is a righteous man. — George R. R. Martin

The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. — George R. R. Martin

I will take what is mine with fire and blood. — George R. R. Martin

They'll kill for that knighthood, but don't ever think they'll die for it. — George R. R. Martin

The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here. Yet she stepped out all the same. — George R. R. Martin

Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used against you — George R. R. Martin

If I die, I die friendless and abandoned. What choice did that leave him, but to live? — George R. R. Martin

What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms . . . or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy. — George R. R. Martin

You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you. — George R. R. Martin

It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise. — George R. R. Martin

When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it — George R. R. Martin

Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens. — George R. R. Martin

There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man. — George R. R. Martin

Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day. — George R. R. Martin

Don’t call me Lord Snow.” The dwarf lifted an eyebrow. “Would you rather be called the Imp? Let them see that their words can cut you and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name take it make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore. — George R. R. Martin

I am surrounded by flatterers and fools. It can drive a man to madness,.. . Half of them don’t dare tell me the truth, and the other half can’t find it. — George R. R. Martin

But what a man can do and what a man will do are two different things, he knew. — George R. R. Martin

Life Lessons by George R. R. Martin

1. George R. R. Martin teaches us that hard work and dedication can pay off, as he has achieved great success with his writing.
2. He also shows us that it is important to take risks and be creative in order to stand out from the crowd.
3. Finally, Martin demonstrates the power of storytelling and how it can be used to captivate and engage readers.