You want people to be eager for your book; the downside is when the people forget the series even exists.

You always try to do your own thing. One of the things I wanted to do was to write a book that combines some of the best traits of contemporary fantasy with some of the traits of the historical novel.

There was part of me that wanted to see the world and travel to distant places, but I could only do it in my imagination, so I read ferociously and imagined things.

The prejudice is still there, but it's breaking down. You have writers like Michael Chabon and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. He's a writer who's determined to break down genre barriers. He's done amazing things.

The vast majority of writers out there, they finish their books, and no one cares whether their book is late or ever comes out at all. And then it comes out, and two reviews are published, and it sells 12 copies.

I love fantasy. I grew up reading fantasy.

I do get invitations all of the time to play actual fantasy football, by the way, but I get the feeling that I'd like it too much. I have enough demands on my time. My fans would kill me.

Believe it or not, I worked four summers in college as a sports writer covering baseball for a parks and rec department in Bayonne, N.J.

One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.

I spent a whole summer working on what proved to be 'A Game of Thrones'.

If you go all the way back, I've always written science-fiction, I've always written fantasy, I've always written horror stories and monster stories, right from the beginning of my career. I've always moved back and forth between the genres. I don't really recognise that there's a significant difference between them in some senses.

I have files, I have computer files and, you know, files on paper. But most of it is really in my head. So God help me if anything ever happens to my head!

One of the things I love, and I'm a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable.

As much as I love historical fiction, my problem with historical fiction is that you always know what's going to happen.

The success that the Tolkien books had redefined modern fantasy.

I wrote six pilots, none of which ever got picked up. When you stop trying, it then it falls in your lap.

I'm one of those writers who say, 'I've enjoy having written.'

In my 10 years that I spent out in TV and film, I had my shares of frustrations and annoyances and disappointments, but also I think it was, in the long run, it was very good for me in a whole bunch of ways.

When I'm writing from a character's viewpoint, in essence I become that character; I share their thoughts, I see the world through their eyes and try to feel everything they feel.

I have a huge emotional attachment to characters I've created, especially the viewpoint characters.

Don't write outlines; I hate outlines.

I have always been a dark writer.

You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn't give you the power to reform, or improve, or build.

I know some writers can write on the road, but I'm not one of them.