马丁本人厌倦了不停追问出版，以下为他的回复：够了吗？
I haven't lost my enthusiasm for writing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.
I have, however, lost my enthusiasm for answering questions about it.
And I have REALLY lost my enthusiasm for people writing that I am "not a young man" and speculating about my possible death.
I am not working "only sporadically" on DANCE. But it's not simple equation: x many hours does not necessarily produce X many pages. Oh, sure, some writers can do that. Not me.
For me, especially on this book, there's a lot of rewriting (and restructuring) involved. I write a chapter, sometimes several, decide later it isn't working, go back and rewrite and cut it all out.
These are aspects of the creative process that are NOT FOR PUBLIC VIEW. I am wrestling with my story, my characters, and my muse, and that's one wrestling match you won't see on Pay Per View.
Someday I will die, and I hope you're right and it's thirty years from now. When that happens, maybe my heirs will decide to publish a book of fragments and deleted chapters, and you'll all get to read about Tyrion's meeting with the Shrouded Lord. It's a swell, spooky, evocative chapter, but you won't read it in DANCE. It took me down a road I decided I did not want to travel, so I went back and ripped it out. So, unless I change my mind again, it's going the way of the draft of LORD OF THE RINGS where Tolkien has Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin reach the Prancing Pony and meet... a weatherbeaten old hobbit ranger named "Trotter."
And that's about as much as I'm going to say on this subject. Which is probably too much. I guarantee you, I will now get a bunch of letters from those who want to read this deleted chapter. (No. Thank you, but no).
I'm working on it.
It will be done when it's done. When it is, I'll let you know.
Why isn't that enough?
