George R. R. Martin photo

George R. R. Martin

George Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.

In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.

In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.

Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.

Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...


“Who'd want to kill the likes of you?" "My lord father, for one. He's put me in the van." "I'd do the same. A small man with a big shield. You'll give the archers fits.”
George R. R. Martin
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“I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Fear is what keeps a man alive in this world if treachery and deceit.”
George R. R. Martin
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“I never win anything," Dolorous Edd complained. "The gods always smiled on Watt, though. When the wildlings knocked him off the Bridge of Skulls, somehow he landed in a nice depp proof of water. How lucky was that, missing all those rocks?""Was it a long fall?" Green wanted to know. "Did landing in the pool of water save his life?""No," said Dolorous Edd. "He was dead already, from that axe in his head. Still, it was pretty lucky, missing the rocks.”
George R. R. Martin
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“I don’t know what message to send to Bran. Help him Tyrion.”“What help could I give him? I am no maester, to ease his pain. I have no spell to give him back his legs.”“You gave me help when I needed it” Jon Snow said.“I gave you nothing,” Tyrion said. “Words.”“Then give your words to Bran too.”
George R. R. Martin
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“What do you like to do?”She scuffed a toe amongst the rushes. “Needlework.”“Very restful, isn’t it?”“Well,” said Arya, “not the way I do it.”
George R. R. Martin
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“I was with her when she died,” Ned reminded the king. “She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father.” He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister’s eyes. Ned remembered the way she smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Cunt again? It was odd how men like Suggs used that word to demean women when it was the only part of a woman they valued.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Past a certain point, all the dates grow hazy and confused, and the clarity of history becomes the fog of legend.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Gods and wonders always appear, to attend the birth of kings.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Hold yourself.. why Winter is coming." Eddard Stark”
George R. R. Martin
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“Let them say what they will. I can still fly. - Earl Sanderson, Jr.”
George R. R. Martin
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“The wind pulled at his clothes like an insistent lover.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Warum sollte der Tod einen Mann ehrlicher oder gar klüger machen? Die Toten sind wahrscheinlich dumme Kerle, die sich unaufhörlich beklagen - die Erde ist zu kalt, mein Grabstein sollte größer sein, warum hat er mehr Würmer als ich...”
George R. R. Martin
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“She could not bear to look at him just now. If she did, she might well slap him again. Or cry. Or kiss him. And never know which was right and which was wrong and which was madness.”
George R. R. Martin
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“La muerte es tan... definitiva! Mientras que la vida está llena de posibilidades”
George R. R. Martin
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“Říká se, že noční krásy skomírají zasvítání a k dětem vína se v ranním světle často nikdo nehlásí.”
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“Some instinct made her lift her hand and cup his cheek with her fingers. The room was too dark for her to see him, but she could feel the stickiness of the blood, and a wetness that was not blood. "Little bird," he said once more, his voice raw and harsh as steel on stone. Then he rose from the bed. Sansa heard cloth ripping, followed by the softer sound of retreating footsteps.When she crawled out of bed, long moments later, she was alone. She found his cloak on the floor, twisted up tight, the white wool stained by blood and fire. The sky outside was darker by then, with only a few pale green ghosts dancing against the stars. A chill wind was blowing, banging the shutters. Sansa was cold. She shook out the torn cloak and huddled beneath it on the floor, shivering.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Lady," she whimpered softly, wondering if she would meet her wolf again when she was dead.”
George R. R. Martin
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“You look pale, Sansa," Cersei observed. "Is your red flower still blooming?""Yes""How apt. The men will bleed out there, and you in here.”
George R. R. Martin
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“I loved a maid as white as winter, with moonglow in her hair.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Tomorrow's trials concerned her more than yesterday's triumphs.”
George R. R. Martin
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“At sixteen, he was cursed with all the certainty of youth, unleavened by any trace of humor or self-doubt, and wed to the arrogance that came so naturally to those born blond and strong and handsome.”
George R. R. Martin
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“She walked fast, to keep ahead of her fear,...”
George R. R. Martin
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“Yet even so the darkness thickened, until it covered his eyes and filled his nose and stopped his ears, so he could not see or smell or hear or run, and the grey cliffs were gone and the dead horse was gone and his brother was gone and all was black and still and black and cold and black and dead and black…”
George R. R. Martin
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“Debes conocer a los hombres que te siguen-le oyo decir a Robb una vez-, y ellos debe conocerte. No les pidas a tus hombres que mueran por un desconocido.”
George R. R. Martin
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“No one gets to abuse the people of Westeros but me!”
George R. R. Martin
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“An old man sat down beside her. "Well, aren't you a pretty little peach?" His breath smelled near as foul as the dead men in the cages, and his little pig eyes were crawling up and down her. "Does my sweet peach have a name?"For half a heartbeat she forgot who she was supposed to be. She wasn't any peach, but she couldn't be Arya Stark either, not here with some smelly drunk she did not know. "I'm . . .""She's my sister." Gendry put a heavy hand on the old man's shoulder, and squeezed. "Leave her be."The man turned, spoiling for a quarrel, but when he saw Gendry's size he thought better of it. "You sister, is she? What kind of brother are you? I'd never bring no sister of mine to the Peach, that I wouldn't." He got up from the bench and moved off muttering, in search of a new friend."Why did you say that?" Arya hopped to her feet, "You're not my brother.""That's right," he said angrily. "I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high."Arya was taken aback by the fury in his voice. "That's not the way I mean it.""Yes it is." He sat down on the bench, cradling a cup of wine between his hands. "Go away. I want to drink this wine in peace. Then maybe I'll go find that black-haired girl and ring her bell for her.""But . . .""I said, go away. M'lady."Arya whirled and left him there. A stupid bullheaded bastard boy, that's all he is. He could ring all the bells he wanted, it was nothing to her.”
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“I'm named Bella," the girl told Gendry. "For the battle. I bet I could ring your bell, too. You want to?""No," he said gruffly."I bet you do." She ran a hand along his arm. "I don't cost nothing to friends of Thoros and the lighting lord.""No, I said." Gendry rose abruptly and stalked away from the table out into the night.Bella turn to Arya. "Don't he like girls?"Arya shrugged. "He's just stupid. He likes to polish helmets and beat on swords with hammers.”
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“I bet this is a brothel," she whispered to Gendry."You don't even know what a brothel is.""I do so," she insisted. "It's like an inn, with girls.”
George R. R. Martin
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“He was a Lannister of Casterly Rock, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; no sellsword would make him scream.Sunlight ran silver along the edge of the arakh as it came shivering down, almost too fast to see. And Jaime screamed.”
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“Jaime had decided that he would return Sansa, and the younger girl as well if she could be found. It was not like to win him back his honor, but the notion of keeping faith when they all expected betrayal amused him more than he could say.”
George R. R. Martin
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“I learned long ago that it is considered rude to vomit on your brother”
George R. R. Martin
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“Tyrion Lannister was bundled in furs so thickly he looked like a very small bear”
George R. R. Martin
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“There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.”
George R. R. Martin
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“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
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“oh, don't look so aggrieved. I have never met a man I didn't provoke" ~ Asha Greyjoy (from a Feast For Crows)”
George R. R. Martin
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“it is real, all of it, he thought, the wars, the intrigues, the great bloody game, and me in the center of it... me, the dwarf, the monster, the one they scorned and laughed at, but now i hold it all, the power, the city, the girl. this was what i was made for, and gods forgive me, but i do love it... and her. and her." (tyrion lannister)”
George R. R. Martin
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“Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever.”
George R. R. Martin
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“You are the blood of the dragon. You can make a hat.”
George R. R. Martin
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“And if I'm guilty of having gratuitous sex, then I'm also guilty of having gratuitous violence, and gratuitous feasting, and gratuitous description of clothes, and gratuitous heraldry, because very little of this is necessary to advance the plot. But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.A novel for me is an immersive experience where I feel as if I have lived it and that I've tasted the food and experienced the sex and experienced the terror of battle. So I want all of the detail, all of the sensory things—whether it's a good experience, or a bad experience, I want to put the reader through it. To that mind, detail is necessary, showing not telling is necessary, and nothing is gratuitous.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Spikes, " he sighed. "Heads. Walls.”
George R. R. Martin
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“his snores sounded like ducks mating.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Syrio says that every hurt is a lesson, and every lesson makes you better”
George R. R. Martin
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“If I took it away, no doubt I'd find a morningstar hidden under your pillow within a fortnight. Try not to stab your sister, whatever the provocation.”
George R. R. Martin
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“Ser Barristan loves his honor, Grand Maester Pycelle loves his office, and Littlefinger loves Littlefinger.”
George R. R. Martin
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“A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”
George R. R. Martin
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“He said.” Jojen frowned. “This . . . Coldhands?”“That wasn’t his true name,” said Gilly, rocking. “We only called him that, Sam and me. His hands were cold as ice, but he saved us from the dead men, him and his ravens, and he brought us here on his elk.”“His elk?” said Bran, wonderstruck.“His elk?” said Meera, startled.“His ravens?” said Jojen.“Hodor?” said Hodor.“Was he green?” Bran wanted to know. “Did he have antlers?”The fat man was confused. “The elk?”“Coldhands,” said Bran impatiently. “The green men ride on elks, Old Nan used to say. Sometimes they have antlers too.”
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“Arya, What are you doing?""Syrio says a water dancer can stand on one toe for hours." Her hands flailed at the air to steady herself.Ned had to smile. "Which toe?" he teased."ANY toe," Arya said, exasperated with the question. She hopped from her right leg to her left, swaying dangerously before she regained her balance."Must you do your standing here?" he asked. "It's a long hard fall down these steps.""Syrio says a water dancer NEVER falls.”
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“Another name? Oh, certainly. And when the Faceless Men come to kill me, I'll say, 'No, you have the wrong man, I'm a different dwarf with a hideous facial scar.'" Both Lannisters laughed at the absurdity of it all. (Tyrion Lannister)”
George R. R. Martin
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