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...


“If I wanted to honor you, I´d let you retire. I am planing to make you run the kingdom and fight the wars while I eat and drink”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“All me lie when they are afraid. Some tell many lies, some but a few. Some have only one great lie they tell so often that they almost come to believe it ... though some small part of them will always know that it is still a lie, and that will show upon their faces.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“All dwarfs may be bastards yet not all bastards are dwarfs.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“A hedge knight must hold tight to his pride. Without it, he was no more than a sellsword”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“I wonder what the High Septon would have to say about the sanctity of oaths sworn while dead drunk, chained to a wall, with a sword pressed to your chest?”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“His dagger was out, poised at her throat. “Sing, little bird. Sing for your little life.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Aemon’s blind white eyes came open. “Egg?” he said, as the rain streamed down his cheeks. “Egg, I dreamed that I was old.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Night’s Watch takes no part, so no man’s our enemy.”"And no man’s our friend, she thought.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“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
Read more
“You are your mother's trueborn son of Lannister.""Am I?" the dwarf replied, sardonic. "Do tell my lord father. My mother died birthing me, and he's never been sure.""I don't even know who my mother was," Jon said. "Some woman, no doubt. Most of them are." He favored Jon with a rueful grin. "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
Read more
“A man agrees with god as a raindrop agrees with the storm”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“It was justice,” Stannis said. “A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward. You were a hero and a smuggler.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“I take no joy in mead nor meat, and song and laughter have become suspicious strangers to me. I am a creature of grief and dust and bitter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“We all dream of things we cannot have.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“What could he have done, one man against so many?"He could have tried, Brienne thought.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“I love you too, sweet sister. But you're a fool. A beautiful golden fool.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?"Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit. I smell hot bread baking. I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf. I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. "I don't smell anything," she said.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Men have scars, women mysteries.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“If she pops out sons the way she pops in tarts, the Dreadfort will soon be overrun with Boltons.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“...How would you like to die, Tyrion son of Tywin?""In my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a maiden's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty," he replied.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Some gave me soft words and some blunt, some made excuses, some promises, some only lied. In the end words are just wind.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“She wants fire, and Dorne sent her mud.You could make a poultice out of mud to cool a fever. You could plant seeds in mud and grow a crop to feed your children. Mud would nourish you, where fire would only consume you, but fools and children and young girls would choose fire every time.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Remember, whatever the price...I'll beat it! I like living!Tyrion Lannister”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“valar morghulisvalar doeharis”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Tell Robb that I'm going to command the Night's Watch and keep him safe, so he might as well take up needlework with the girls and have Mikken melt down his sword for horseshoes.- Jon Snow”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used against you”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Those are brave men," he told Ser Balon in admiration. "Let's go kill them.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“The wind cut like a knife up here, and shrilled in the night like a mother mourning her slain children.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Never ask me about Jon; he is my blood and that is all you need to know! Ned was different. He brought his bastard home, and called him son.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“You win or you die.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“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
Read more
“Up and down," Meera would sigh sometimes as they walked, "then down and up. Then up and down again. I hate these stupid mountains of yours, Prince Bran.""Yesterday you said you loved them.""Oh, I do. My lord father told me about mountains, but I never saw one till now. I love them more than I can say."Bran made a face at her. "But you just said you hated them.""Why can't it be both?" Meera reached up to pinch his nose."Because they're different," he insisted. "Like night and day, or ice and fire.""If ice can burn," said Jojen in his solemn voice, "then love and hate can mate. Mountain or marsh, it makes no matter. The land is one.""One," his sister agreed, "but over wrinkled.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“You do not steal from the dragon, oh, no. The dragon remembers.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Do you want to die old and craven in your bed?- How else? Though not till I'm done reading.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Small men oft feel a need to prove their courage with unseemly boasts," he declared. "I doubt if he could kill a duck."Tyrion shrugged. "Fetch the duck.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Everyone talks about snows forty foot deep, and how the ice wind comes howling out of the north, but the real enemy is the cold. It steals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your feet and dream of mulled wine and nice hot fires. It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don't have the strength to fight it. It's easier just to sit down ot go to sleep. They say you don't feel any pain toward the end. First you go weak and drowsy, and everything starts to fade, and then it's like sinking into a sea of warm milk. Peaceful, like.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“[Stares at dead knight, killed by the Direwolves] Ersen: If he had sounded his horn... Theon: Try and imagine it was you up there, Ersen. Its dark and cold. You have been walking century for hours looking forward to the end of your watch. Then you hear a noise and you move forward to the gate, and suddenly, you see eyes glowing green and gold in the torchlight.Two shadows come rushing toward you faster than you can believe. You catch a glimpse of teeth, start to level your spear, and they slam into you and open your belly, tearing through leather as if it was cheese cloth. [Shoves Ersen hard] Theon: And now you're down on you back, your guts are spilling out and one of them has his teeth around your neck. [Grabs Ersen around the neck and sqeezes] Theon: Tell me, at what moment during all of this do you stop to blow your Fucking horn?" [Shoves Ersen roughly]”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“A bruise is a lesson... and each lesson makes us better.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Those are brave men... lets go kill them”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Because they are the knights of summer, and winter is coming.'' ''Lady Catelyn, you are wrong.'' Brienne regarded her with eyes as blue as her armor. ''Winter will never come for the likes of us. Should we die in battle, they will surely sing of us, and it's always summer in the songs. In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“And all was black and still, and black and cold, and black and dead, and black.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“And I tell you truly, Daenerys, there is no man in all the world who will ever be half so true to you as me.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“You were made to be kissed, often and well.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“You're mine," she whispered. "Mine, as I'm yours. And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first, we'll live.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“Before he had lost his sight, the maester had loved books as much as Samwell Tarly did. He understood the way that you could sometimes fall right into them, as if each page was a hole into another world.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more
“The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.”
George R.R. Martin
Read more