Keen to find out more about his inspiration, I ask Martin about his childhood. His accent is pleasingly gravelly to a British ear. It comes from Bayonne, New Jersey (“a blue-collar town”), where he was born and brought up, the son of a longshoreman. Was he solitary? “Well, I had a couple of friends but I was mostly the kid with his nose in a book.” He was mad about comic books (he still has a valuable collection of comics) and read widely.

我很想更多地探寻马丁的灵感来源，便问起了他的童年生活。他的口音在英国人听来有一种愉悦的沙哑感。他出生在美国新泽西州的贝永（Bayonne，一个“蓝领小镇”），在那里长大，父亲是一名码头装卸工。我问他是否感到孤独？“嗯，我有几个朋友，但大多数时间我都是一个埋头看书的孩子。”他曾经对漫画书极度痴迷（仍收藏有很多珍贵的漫画书）且阅读广泛。

The Martin family – he has two younger sisters – lived near Bayonne’s harbour front in a federal housing project. Money was scarce – his war veteran father had periods of unemployment. George’s world was made up of just five blocks, bounded by the water. “There was this little grassy place where I would go and sit and just dream, and no one else knew about it. I could see not only the ferries but big ships going into Newark Bay, freighters from all around the world, with their flags.

马丁有两个妹妹，他们一家住在贝永港口附近联邦政府提供的住房中。家里很拮据，作为退役老兵的父亲经常处于失业状态。马丁那时的世界只有五个街区大小，三面环水。“有一小块草地，我可以去那里闲坐，做做美梦，没有别的人知道。我不仅可以看到渡船，还可以看到开往纽瓦克湾的巨轮，以及来自世界各地、挂着各自国旗的货轮。”

“I had this desire to see the world. I couldn’t see any of it but I saw it in my imagination, and that’s why I always read books, and I could go to Mars or Middle Earth or the Hyborian age.” (The latter is Robert E Howard’s imagined world, home to Conan the Barbarian).

“我渴望见识世界。虽然我不能亲身见识任何地方，但我在自己的想象中见到了，这就是为什么我总是在读书，（在书中）我可以去火星、中土世界(Middle Earth)或者海波瑞恩时代(Hyborian Age)。”（后者是罗伯特•E•霍华德(Robert E Howard)设想的世界，蛮王柯南(Conan the Barbarian)的故乡）。

Back in present-day London, the menus have arrived. “The schnitzel was recommended to me,” he says, as we ponder an overwhelming number of menu choices. We order Wiener schnitzel for him, chicken for me. What does it come with? Nothing, says the waitress, shrugging helplessly and miming a big plate. I picture an empty space on the plate and we order sides. “Buttery mash sounds good,” says Martin. I choose sprouting broccoli with almonds. In anticipation of these heavy main courses we stick to salad starters – endive, pear and rocket for him; avocado, radish and butter leaf lettuce for me. He motions for me to order wine. “Go ahead! A rosé would be nice, you are having chicken, after all.”

回到如今的伦敦，菜单已经送来了。我们看着菜单上令人目不暇接的菜品不知道该点什么时，他说：“有人向我推荐炸肉排。”于是他点了维也纳炸小牛排，我点了炸鸡排。有配菜吗？没有，服务员说，她爱莫能助地耸耸肩，比划着说盘子很大。我想象了一下空荡荡的盘子，于是点了一些配菜。马丁说：“黄油土豆泥听起来不错。”我则选了杏仁花椰菜。由于预计这些主菜很油腻，我们又点了沙拉开胃菜——他点了菊苣、梨和芝麻菜，而我点了鳄梨、萝卜和黄油生菜。他示意我点红酒。“点吧！红葡萄酒会很不错，别忘了，你点了鸡肉。”

Martin, who is closely involved in the Game of Thrones TV series and writes one episode of each series himself, believes its success lies in its universal appeal. “HBO have done some classic shows: The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire – which many people consider the greatest TV show of all time. But most of their shows are very American. What does it mean to someone in Thailand to watch Tony Soprano in New Jersey struggling with his family? But Game of Thrones, being fantasy, and set in an imaginary kingdom, and about certain universal issues – of power and family, and love and duty, and all that – does hopefully speak to many different cultures.”

马丁密切参与了系列电视剧《权力的游戏》的制作，亲自为每一季写一集剧本。他认为该剧的成功在于其广泛的吸引力。“HBO制作了一些经典电视剧：《黑道家族》(The Sopranos)、《戴德伍德》(Deadwood)和《火线》(The Wire)——许多人认为《火线》是史上最伟大的电视剧。但他们的电视剧大多非常美国化。一名泰国观众观看新泽西州的托尼•索普拉诺(Tony Soprano)与家族争斗，有什么意思呢？但《权力的游戏》是奇幻题材，以一个想象中的王国为背景，讲一些普遍问题——权力和家族、爱情和责任，诸如此类——的确很可能迎合许多不同的文化”。

Game of Thrones has also become famous for its use of “sexposition” – keeping viewers hooked by combining complex plot exposition with explicit sexual goings-on. “That is something that is not in the books, of course,” he says. “There is lots of sex in the books but no sexposition. I have lots of ways of doing exposition that are not available to David and Dan [Benioff and Weiss, Game of Thrones’ writer-producers].” Warming to the theme, he goes on riffing on the possible wider uses for sexposition. “It should be adopted by industry. Think how much more interesting staff meetings would be if, while they were briefing you ... ” He tails off but the mental picture makes me snort with laughter.