George R.R. Martin calls the end of Game of Thrones "freeing": "I don’t think it was very good for me"

The Guardian

Martin once again insisted, in an interview with The Guardian, that the HBO ending won't influence the books, saying of the backlash: "You can’t please everybody, so you’ve got to please yourself." Martin added that he felt relief that the HBO series was now over: “There were a couple of years where, if I could have finished the book, I could have stayed ahead of the show for another couple of years, and the stress was enormous. I don’t think it was very good for me, because the very thing that should have speeded me up actually slowed me down. Every day I sat down to write and even if I had a good day – and a good day for me is three or four pages – I’d feel terrible because I’d be thinking: ‘My God, I have to finish the book. I’ve only written four pages when I should have written 40.’ But having the show finish is freeing, because I’m at my own pace now. I have good days and I have bad days and the stress is far less, although it’s still there… I’m sure that when I finish A Dream of Spring you’ll have to tether me to the Earth.”