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...


“He was the blood of the dragon, but now his fire has gone out. He was Aemon Targaryen. And now his watch is ended.”
George R.R. Martin
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“So long as she could kill with a whisper, Arya need not be afraid of anyone . . . but once she used up the last death, she would only be a mouse again.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Which king?”“All of them. The true and the false alike. If they would claim the realm, let them defend it.”
George R.R. Martin
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“There are worse ways to die than warm and drunk. I knew a brother drowned himself in wine once. It was a poor vintage, though, and his corpse did not improve it.”
George R.R. Martin
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“A grey man,” she said. “Neither white nor black, but partaking of both. Is that what you are, Ser Davos?”“What if I am? It seems to me that most men are grey.”“If half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil.”
George R.R. Martin
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“The gods don’t care about men, no more than kings care about peasants.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Music to my ears.” Though not a tune I’m fond of.”
George R.R. Martin
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“You told me that the children of the forest had the greensight. I remember.”“Some claimed to have that power. Their wise men were called greenseers.”“Was it magic?”“Call it that for want of a better word, if you must. At heart it was only a different sort of knowledge.”Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. The years pass in their hundreds andtheir thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and sothey seem . . . but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sinkbeneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes.So long as there was magic, anything could happen. Ghosts could walk, trees could talk, and broken boys could grow up to be knights.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Tell me who’s won and I’ll tell you what it means.”
George R.R. Martin
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“I knew a man once who told me that I smiled at the wrong things.""Do you?"Only by the light of those who smile at nothing.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Wherever she looked, she saw fires. They covered the earth like fallen stars, and like the stars there was no end to them.”
George R.R. Martin
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“It is one thing to deceive a king, and quite another to hide from the cricket in the rushes and the little bird in the chimney.”
George R.R. Martin
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“It was the end of the world.And we are going beyond it.”
George R.R. Martin
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“All men must sleep, Bran. Even princes.”“When I sleep I turn into a wolf.” Bran turned his face away and looked back out into the night. “Do wolves dream?”“All creatures dream, I think, yet not as men do.”“Do dead men dream?” Bran asked, thinking of his father. In the dark crypts below Winterfell, a stonemason was chiseling out his father’s likeness in granite.“Some say yes, some no,” the maester answered. “The dead themselves are silent on the matter.”“Do trees dream?”“Trees? No . . .”“They do,” Bran said with sudden certainty. “They dream tree dreams. I dream of a tree sometimes. A weirwood, like the one in the godswood. It calls to me. The wolf dreams are better. I smell things, and sometimes I can taste the blood.”Maester Luwin tugged at his chain where it chafed his neck. “If you would only spend more time with the other children—”“I hate the other children,” Bran said, meaning the Walders. “I commanded you to send them away.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Now here is a riddle,” Melisandre said. “A clever fool and a foolish wise man.”
George R.R. Martin
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“racing down the kingsroad, as if to outrun his doubts.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Nor was he Aemon Targaryen. Three times the old man had chosen, and three times he had chosen honor, but that was him. Even now, Jon could not decide whether the maester had stayed because he was weak and craven, or because he was strong and true.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Perhaps I will die too, she told herself, and the thought did not seem so terrible to her. If she flung herself from the window, she could put an end to her suffering, and in the years to come the singers would write songs of her grief. Her body would lie on the stones below, broken and innocent, shaming all those who had betrayed her. Sansa went so far as to cross the bedchamber and throw open the shutters ... but then her courage left her, and she ran back to her bed, sobbing.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Jon lied ... loudly, as if that could make it true.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Ned closed his eyes and opened them; it made no difference. He slept and woke and slept again. He did not know which was more painful, the waking or the sleeping. When he slept, he dreamed: dark disturbing dreams of blood and broken promises. When he woke, there was nothing to do but think, and his waking thoughts were worse than nightmares.”
George R.R. Martin
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“It had been more of a wish, actually, but it sounded better to call it a dream.”
George R.R. Martin
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“We'll never find that one, and I'll be blamed," announced Edd Tollett, the dour grey-haired squire everyone called Dolorous Edd. "Nothing ever goes missing that they don't look at me, ever since that time I lost my horse. As if that could be helped. He was white and it was snowing, what did they expected”
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“All men must die, Jon Snow. But first we'll live. -Ygritte”
George R.R. Martin
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“Jon Snow, is this a proper castle now? Not just a tower?”“It is.” Jon took her hand.“Good,” she whispered. “I wanted t’ see one proper castle, before … before I …”“You’ll see hundred castles. The battle’s done. Maester Aemon will see to you. You’re kissed by fire, remember? Lucky. It will take more than an arrow to kill you. Aemon will draw it out and patch you up, and we’ll get milk of the poppy for the pain.”She just smiled at that. “D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave. I told you so.”“We’ll go back to the cave,” he said.” You’re not going to die, Ygritte. You’re not.”“Oh.” Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she sighed, dying.”
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“The Red God takes what is his, lovely girl. And only death may pay for life. You saved me and the two I was with. You stole three deaths from the Red God. We have to give them back. Speak three names and the man will do the rest. Three lives I will give you - no more, no less, and we're done.”
George R.R. Martin
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“My brother has his sword, and I have my mind...―Tyrion Lannister”
George R.R. Martin
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“Never knew Bannen could smell so good.' Edd's tone was morose as ever.'I had half a mind to carve a slice off him. If we had some applesauce, I might have done it. Pork's always best with applesauce, I find.' ... 'You best not die, Sam, or I fear I might succumb. There's bound to be more crackling on you than Bannen ever had,and I never could resist a bit of crackling.”
George R.R. Martin
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“And then the years were gone, and he was back at Winterfell once more, wearing a quilted leather coat in place of mail and plate. His sword was not made of wood, and it was Robb who stood facing him, not Iron Emmett.Every morning they had trailed together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. "I'm Prince Aemon the Dragonknight," Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, "Well, I'm Florian the Fool." Or Robb would say, "I'm the Young Dragon," and Jon would reply, "I'm Ser Ryam Redwyne."That morning he called it first. "I'm Lord of Winterfell!" he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Her name is Brienne," Jaime said. "Brienne, the maid of Tarth. You are still maiden, I hope?"Her broad homely face turned red. "Yes.""Oh, good," Jaime said. "I only rescue maidens.”
George R.R. Martin
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“My featherbed is deep and soft,and there I’ll lay you down,I’ll dress you all in yellow silkand on your head a crown.For you shall be my lady love,and I shall be your lord.I’ll always keep you warm and safe,and guard you with my sword.And how she smiled and how she laughed, the maiden of the tree.She spun away and said to him, no featherbed for me.I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves,and bind my hair with grass,But you can be my forest love,and me your forest lass.”
George R.R. Martin
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“The best lies contain within them nuggets of truth, enough to give a listener pause.”
George R.R. Martin
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“That is the nature of prophecy... Prophecy will bite your prick off every time.”
George R.R. Martin
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“What would a Frey know of honor? - Sir Davos Seaworth”
George R.R. Martin
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“Tyrion pushed forward. "MY LORDS! " he shouted. He had to shout, to have any hope of being heard.His father raised a hand. Bit by bit, the hall grew silent.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Because it will not last,” Catelyn answered, sadly. “Because they are the knights of summer, and winter is coming.”
George R.R. Martin
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“If you do shit gold, Father, find a privy and get busy, he wanted to say, but he knew better. --Tyrion Lannister”
George R.R. Martin
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“I loved a maid fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.”
George R.R. Martin
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“A todos nos hace falta que se burlen de nosotros de cuando en cuando, lord Mormont. De lo contrario, empezamos a tomarnos demasiado en serio.Tyrion Lannister”
George R.R. Martin
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“Cuando se juega al juego de tronos sólo se puede ganar o morir. No hay puntos intermedios.Cersei Lannister”
George R.R. Martin
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“Nunca olvides qué eres, porque desde luego el mundo no lo va a olvidar. Conviértelo en tu mejor arma, así nunca será tu punto débil. Úsalo como armadura y nadie podrá utilizarlo para herirte.”
George R.R. Martin
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“They were in a long line, an endless line, and as they burst from the wood there was an instant, the smallest part of a heartbeat, when all Catelyn saw was the moonlight on the point of their lance, as if a thousand willowisps were coming down the ridge, wreathed in silver. Then she blinked, and they were only men, rushing down to kill or die.”
George R.R. Martin
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“He says that it is good luck to rub the head of a dwarf,” Haldon said after an exchange with the guard in his own tongue.Tyrion forced himself to smile at the man. “Tell him that it is even better luck to suck on a dwarf’s cock.”
George R.R. Martin
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“And what lesson can we draw from Volantene history?”“If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.”
George R.R. Martin
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“There were some secrets that should never be spoken, some shames a man should take to his grave.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Day followed day, and night followed night, until Dany knew she could not endure a moment longer. She would kill herself rather than go on, she decided one night... Yet when she slept that night, she dreamt the dragon dream again. Viserys was not in it this time. There was only her and the dragon. Its scales were black as night, wet and slick with blood. Her blood, Dany sensed. Its eyes were pools of molten magma and when it opened its mouth, the flame came roaring out in a hot jet. She could hear it singing to her. She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain. She felt strong and new and fierce. And the next day, strangely, she did not seem to hurt quite as much.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Know the men who follow you and let them know you. Don't ask your men to die for a stranger.”
George R.R. Martin
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“It is my look they will flinch from now, my frown that they must fear.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Beneath it his skin was milky white, serene and unlined, ready to begin anew, ready for the world to write upon it.”
George R.R. Martin
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“The nights are too long,' he told Missandei, 'and there is much and more to do, always.”
George R.R. Martin
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“Sweet smells are sometimes used to cover foul ones.”
George R.R. Martin
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