Want to learn a bit more about the man behind Westeros? We have the full George R.R. Martin breakdown in right around two minutes. Not bad, right?

We dig into Martin’s career, going all the way back to his teenage years as a hardcore comic fan, his time as a student at Northwestern University, his teaching tenure, the first story he sold in the early 1970s and all the success that’s followed. Of course, everything changed in the 1990s with A Song of Ice and Fire, and what started as three books is still rolling at more than twice that. That Martin is a bit long-winded, but we’re not complaining.

One interesting tidbit: Be glad Martin’s novel The Armageddon Rag flopped, because it was that project that eventually pushed him to start working in Hollywood. Fast forward a while, and we have Game of Thrones. So yeah, a blessing in disguise.

Check out our two-minute bio and let us know what you think: