Fans have been speculating that 65-year-old Game of Thrones author George R R Martin will be dead before he finishes writing the series. They've also been complaining that he's letting other things get in the way of his writing, but Martin put them straight in a recent interview with a Swiss newspaper:

"I find that question pretty offensive, frankly, when people start speculating about my death and my health, so f*** you to those people.

"I'm 65 years old now; I've been writing professionally since 1971. I know my working methods. I don't work when I travel, I don't work in hotels, I don't work on airplanes, I don't work on trains. I work at home, when I have a nice, big uninterrupted block of time in which I can really lose myself in my work."

Well, you can't rush a masterpiece now can you? Martin spoke out back in 2009 aswell about his slow progress:

"Some of you are angry that I watch football during the fall … some of you hate my other projects … some of you don't want me attending conventions, teaching workshops, touring and doing promo, or visiting places like Spain and Portugal (last year) or Finland (this year). More wasting time, when I should be home working on A Dance with Dragons…After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am 60 years old and fat, and you don't want me to 'pull a Robert Jordan' on you and deny you your book."

Hey, the man has a point. He doesn't owe anyone a book – and if we were as successful as him, we'd definitely be using our fortunes to finance a few trips abroad!