Check out the complete 21-minute long interview with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, from when he appeared on Canadian talk show The Hour last night.

This is the full, unedited interview. You can watch the shorter version edited for TV here.

George talks about his writing process, the success of his Ice and Fire saga and how he goes about depicting both the glorious and the gruesome sides of war.

Of particular note, he talks about how much of the ending he’s got planned:

I’ve got the broad strokes figured out. [But] I find things in the journey that are of interest to me, and that’s really the fun of being a writer. If you planned it all out ahead of time I think it’d be sort of a soul-deadening exercise.

The interview is full of George R.R. Martin talking about the series and how he’s been influences by writers like Tolkien (and how he tries to avoid the cliches associated with the genre), and is definitely worth watching in full!