But what a man can do and what a man will do are two different things, he knew. George R. R. Martin More Quotes by George R. R. Martin More Quotes From George R. R. Martin You know, I've always considered women to be people. George R. R. Martin knows people Why do the Gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves? George R. R. Martin protect queens kings The eunuch had looked death in the face, so near he might have kissed her on the lips. George R. R. Martin lips faces might The girl had hoped for fog, but the gods ignored her prayers as gods so often did. George R. R. Martin fog girl prayer Faith is like porridge. Better with milk and honey. George R. R. Martin milk-and-honey milk honey But Tolkien doesn't ask the question: What was Aragorn's tax policy? George R. R. Martin orcs taxes policy We're setting up mechanisms where we can kill human beings with drones and missiles where you're sitting at a console and pressing the button. We never have to hear their whimpering, or hear them begging for their mother, or dying in horrible realities around us. I don't know if that's necessarily such a good thing. George R. R. Martin dying mother reality From where I sit, battles are hard. I’ve written my share. Sometimes I employ the private’s viewpoint, very up close and personal, dropping the reader right into the middle of the carnage. That’s vivid and visceral, but of necessity chaotic, and it is easy to lose all sense of the battle as a whole. Sometimes I go with the general’s point of view instead, looking down from on high, seeing lines and flanks and reserves. That gives a great sense of the tactics, of how the battle is won or lost, but can easily slide into abstraction. George R. R. Martin views writing giving I'm a strong believer in telling stories through a limited but very tight third person point of view. I have used other techniques during my career, like the first person or the omniscient view point, but I actually hate the omniscient viewpoint. None of us have an omniscient viewpoint; we are alone in the universe. We hear what we can hear... we are very limited. If a plane crashes behind you I would see it but you wouldn't. That's the way we perceive the world and I want to put my readers in the head of my characters. George R. R. Martin hate strong writing All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not to say fiction can't be thoughtful, or present some interesting or provocative ideas to make us think. But if you want to present an intellectual argument, nonfiction is a better tool. You can drive a nail with a shoe but a hammer is a better tool for that. But fiction is about emotional resonance, about making us feel things on a primal and visceral level. George R. R. Martin successful writing thinking I don't like the strictly objective viewpoint [in which all of the characters' actions are described in the third person, but we never hear what any of them are thinking.] Which is much more of a cinematic technique. Something written in third person objective is what the camera sees. Because unless you're doing a voiceover, which is tremendously clumsy, you can't hear the ideas of characters. For that, we depend on subtle clues that the directors put in and that the actors supply. I can actually write, "'Yes you can trust me,' he lied." [But it's better to get inside the characters' heads.] George R. R. Martin writing character thinking I'm honest. It's the world that's awful. George R. R. Martin awful honest world The only game. The game of thrones. George R. R. Martin thrones games Ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow. George R. R. Martin thrones shadow men 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 character two book ...Ned always said that the man who passes the sentence should swing the blade, though he never took any joy in the duty. But I would, oh, yes. George R. R. Martin swings joy men A hedge knight must hold tight to his pride. Without it, he was no more than a sellsword George R. R. Martin knights pride Life is very full of sex, or should be. As much as I admire Tolkien - and I do, he was a giant of fantasy and a giant of literature, and I think he wrote a great book that will be read for many years - you do have to wonder where all those Hobbits came from, since you can't imagine Hobbits having sex, can you? Well, sex is an important part of who we are. It drives us, it motivates us, it makes us do sometimes very noble things and it makes us do sometimes incredibly stupid things. Leave it out, and you've got an incomplete world. George R. R. Martin stupid book sex He wished he could relieve himself of his doubts and guilts half as easily. George R. R. Martin guilt half doubt Much as I admire Tolkien, I once again always felt like Gandalf should have stayed dead. That was such an incredible sequence in Fellowship of the Ring when he faces the Balrog on the Khazad-dûm and he falls into the gulf, and his last words are, "Fly, you fools." What power that had, how that grabbed me. And then he comes back as Gandalf the White, and if anything he's sort of improved. I never liked Gandalf the White as much as Gandalf the Grey, and I never liked him coming back. I think it would have been an even stronger story if Tolkien had left him dead. George R. R. Martin should-have fall thinking
