Well, just came back from TIFF. George was great!
No, I didn't have a ticket. I went down to TIFF and asked everyone if there were rush seats - no - or an overflow room - no - and looked very sad and sorrowful. And in the end 2 different TIFF people actually offered me tickets. For free.
And when I went into the room the front 5 or 6 rows were for the public, and then about 10 rows for sponsors, then back rows and the balconies for the public. I asked if there were any single seats and ended up smack dab in the middle, basically in front of George, and in the 3rd row. Beauty! Always have faith!
If you listen to the CBC interview which you'll see the link for under General ASOIAF, much of what he said was repeated tonight. He admitted Tyrion was his favourite, and if he was having dinner with 3 characters, they would be Tyrion, Maester Aemon and then he thought of Arya, but feared she would throw food at him, so he'd go with Dany, because she's hot!
[Redacted description of a partial reading of a chapter from The Winds of Winter.]
As for his reading style, George reads well with feeling. He doesn't do voices or accents but his voice rises and falls with passion and emphasis.
Couple of stories from George, maybe you've seen them already.
The Wall is filmed in a quarry in Ireland. There's basically this huge cliff, and the section used for the wall is painted white. There is a working elevator built to go up the side of the cliff (I mean, the one in the book and show). The quarry drops towards the centre where there is a lake where water collects. The first time there, GRRM looked up the side of this huge cliff and asked someone what the depth was from the top of the cliff to the bottom of the quarry, and was told "400 feet". And he said he looked up again and said, "Shit, I made the wall too high."
He also said from the beginning the 2 actors they knew they wanted were Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean. No one was asked to read for Tyrion, Peter was the one. Other actors read for Ned, in case Sean couldn't accept their offer because of conflicts.
[Note: This event was a separate talk at TIFF, that took place to his public "In Conversation" event. Video of that event can be found here.]
[NOTE: From this reply by GRRM at "Not a Blog".]
The Dothraki were actually fashioned as an amalgam of a number of steppe and plains cultures... Mongols and Huns, certainly, but also Alans, Sioux, Cheyenne, and various other Amerindian tribes... seasoned with a dash of pure fantasy. So any resemblance to Arabs or Turks is coincidental. Well, except to the extent that the Turks were also originally horsemen of the steppes, not unlike the Alans, Huns, and the rest.
There do exist many other cultures and civilizations in my world, to be sure. The peoples of Yi Ti have been mentioned, as have the Jogos Nhai. I am not sure to what extent those peoples will ever enter this present story, however... their lands are very far away.
(I also have peoples and tribes that are pure fantasy constructs, like the Qartheen and the brindled men of Sothoryos).
In general, though, while I do draw inspiration from history, I try to avoid direct one-for-one transplants, whether of individuals or of entire cultures. Just as it not correct to say that Robert was Henry VIII or Edward IV, it would not be correct to say that the Dothraki are Mongols.
IMNSHO, anyway.
[Note: Audio's a little hard to hear (ironically), so raising the volume may be useful.]