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\'Game of Thrones\' author on season five: \'Nobody is safe\'

By Benjamin Wermund | March 3, 2015 | Updated: March 3, 2015 11:14am

George R.R. Martin, author of the popular "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, visited Texas A&M University\'s library to donate a first-edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien\'s "The Hobbit" on Feb. 27, 2015.

Jack Gleeson, left, as Joffrey Baratheon, and Natalie Dormer, right, as Margaery Tyrell, in Season 3.

Keep clicking to see what your favorite characters look like out of costume.

Natalie Dormer still looks regal, even when she\'s not playing a queen-to-be. 

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (L) and Gwendoline Christie pose at the after party for the premiere of HBO\'s Game Of Thrones at the Roosevelt Hotel on March 18, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Daenerys Targaryen played by British actress Emilia Clarke.

Emilia Clarke ranked Number 1 on an AskMen.com most desirable women poll.

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in \'Game of Thrones.\'

Peter Dinklage, left, and his wife Erica Schmidt on the red carpet.

Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Lena Headey in real life, looking completely unrecognizable. (Didn\'t see this one coming, did you?)

Rose Leslie played the tough-as-nails Ygritte on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Rose Leslie still looks fierce even when she\'s out of character.

Daenerys Targaryen (played by Emilia Clarke) and Missandei (played by Nathalie Emmanuel) from \'Game of Thrones.\'

Check out actresses Nathalie Emmanuel, left, and Emilia Clarke from \'Game of Thrones\' laughing it up.

Maisie Williams plays everyone\'s favorite kid hero, Arya Stark, on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Sophie Turner plays Tyrion Lannister\'s (played by Peter Dinklage) reluctant bride, Sansa Stark.

Here she is looking much, much happier. Guess that\'s the look of a woman who\'s free to marry whomever she wants. 

Jack Gleeson plays arguably the most-hated character on \'Game of Thrones\': King Joffrey. (You wish you could slap this picture, don\'t you?)

Jack Gleeson looking a lot less evil at the season four premiere in Hollywood. 

Jason Momoa as Khal Drago on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Jason Momoa IRL with equally as impressive facial hair.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (and his hand) as Jaime Lannister on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau seems a lot more easy going in real life.

Actress Michelle Fairley pretty much looks the same.

Richard Madden and Jenna-Louise Coleman at the premiere of HBO\'s \'Game Of Thrones\' Season 3 in Hollywood.

Oona Chaplin) and her soon-to-be dead husband Robb Stark (played by Richard Madden) in \'Game of Thrones.\'

Oona Chaplin looking full of life on the red (wedding?) carpet.

Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Gwendoline Christie at a Royal Academy of Arts party in London in 2013.

Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy in \'Game of Thrones.\'

Alfie Allen, right, is singer Lily Allen\'s (left) little brother.

Carice van Houten as Melisandre the Red Priestess, alongside Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon. 

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Kristian Nairn as Hordor and Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark.

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Sibel Kekilli plays as Shae, a prostitute-turned-servant-slash-Tyrian-Lannister\'s-lover. (She\'s a busy lady.)

German actress Sibel Kekilli looking more innocent than her character on \'Game of Thrones.\'

Charles Dance plays the patriarch, Tywin Lannister.

Charles Dance still looks like a tough guy.

John Bradley (aka: John Bradley-West) plays Samwell Tarly in \'Game of Thrones.\'

John Bradley looking dapper at the season four premiere in New York. 

Sibel Kekilli, left, and Peter Dinklage are seen at the after party for premiere of the third season of the HBO television series Game of Thrones at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Monday, March 18, 2013 in Los Angeles.

Oona Chaplin, Maisie Williams, and Natalia Tena arrive at the premiere of HBO\'s \'Game Of Thrones\' Season 3 at TCL Chinese Theatre on March 18, 2013 in Hollywood, California.

Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner attend "Game Of Thrones" Season 4 New York Premiere After Party at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center on March 18, 2014 in New York City.

Actors Isaac Hempstead Wright, left, and Kristian Naim attend HBO\'s \'Game of Thrones\' fourth season premiere after party at the Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 in New York.

Actors Jack Gleeson and Sophie Turner attend HBO\'s \'Game of Thrones\' fourth season premiere at Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 in New York.

Sophie Turner (L) with co-star Maisie Williams on the red carpet.

As fans already know, in "Game of Thrones," nobody is safe.

George R.R. Martin, author of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series that spawned HBO\'s wildly popular "Game of Thrones" TV show, stressed that fact while visiting Texas A&M University last week to donate a first-edition copy of "The Hobbit."

"There\'s going to be some surprise deaths," Martin said of the upcoming fifth season of the TV show. "Characters are going to die and some of them are characters who are not dead in the books. But they\'re going to be dead on the screen. So nobody is safe. Nobody is safe."

Watch Martin talk about translating the book series to TV in the video above.

Here are four other takeaways from Martin\'s visit.

1. Martin re-reads J.R.R. Tolkien\'s "Lord of the Rings" series every two years. But it took Martin a while to get into the series when he first read it as a child. The author said he was a fan of the Conan the Barbarian series when he picked up a paperback copy of "The Fellowship of the Ring," which, as he said, begins with a "long essay on pipe weed." "I was expecting Conan" and its half-clothed women, Martin said. He stuck with the book, but nearly quit again when the much-despised Tom Bombadil entered the story. Eventually the story picked up and he got hooked. So hooked that he recalled "an agonizing period where I had to wait for the next book to come out." That\'s a feeling many of his fans know well.

2. Martin\'s advice for writers: "Keep your day job." While Martin has hit it big in recent years, he said his career "crashed and burned at least three times." He even briefly took courses to become a real estate agent in the mid 1980s. Writing, Martin said, is not a profession for ayone who needs or values security. "It\'s a profession for people who are a bit of a gambler and who are ready to have highs and lows and triumphs and failure," he said. "Writing is not a rational choice. Writing is a choice you have to make -- because you can\'t not write. There\'s something in you, there are stories in you, that you have to get out. And, you know, even if nobody would buy them or pay you a cent for them you want to tell those stories."

3. Martin follows William Faulkner\'s rules of writing: "The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself." Everything else, Martin said, is "furniture." It doesn\'t matter if it takes place on a space ship, in a castle with dragons or in contemporary New York City. "If it\'s about the human heart in conflict with itself, and you tell it truthfully and powerfully, as far as I\'m concerned, it\'s literature."

4. Martin\'s next donation to A&M will be some of his earliest writings -- from when he was seven or eight years old. Those include an "Encyclopedia of Space" with drawings of planets and the aliens the young author imagined lived on them. "I could barely write when I was writing stories," Martin said.

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