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 the detail, all 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

And it’s great to have all these readers and fans who, for the most part, are very nice people, saying they love the books and the TV show. But there are so many of them, and it just doesn’t end. Oh, and ‘selfies’! If I could clap my hands and burn out every camera phone in the world, I swear I’d do it!

— George R.R. Martin

And what lesson can we draw from Volunteer history?”“If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.

— George R.R. Martin

An ugly smile. An ugly soul.

— George R.R. Martin

Any cat may stare into a fire and see red mice play,

— George R.R. Martin

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Open. The man who never reads lives only one.

— George R.R. Martin

Are you certain they never cut your member off?" Dortmund gave a shrug, as if to say he would never understand such madness. "Well, you are a free man now, but if you will have the girl, best find yourself a she-bear. If a man does not use his member it grows smaller and smaller, until one day he wants to piss and cannot find it.

— George R.R. Martin

Armageddon,' Sandy said. 'The final battle. The ultimate confrontation between good and evil. That's what Armageddon is supposed to be. Right?' Hobbins lifted a pale white eyebrow, said nothing.' Which side are we?' Sandy demanded. 'Which side are we?'' That's one you got to work out yourself, friend. This ain't like in Tolkien, is it?

— George R.R. Martin

Arya did not dare [take a bath], even though she smelled as bad as Loren by now, all sour and stinky. Some of the creatures living in her clothes had come all the way from Flea Bottom with her; it didn’t seem right to drown them.

— 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