George R.R. Martin certainly has a way with words. The 65-year old author who penned A Song of Ice and Fire — from whence HBO’s Game of Thrones is gleaned — is apparently not too thrilled by worries from fans that his age and health may result in him dying before he is able to finish the final two books of the series. Martin notoriously takes an awful lot of time perfecting his writings; at one point, there was a six-year gap in between releases. And during an interview with Swiss daily paper Tages-Anzeiger (which happens to sound like one of Martin’s creations), the best-selling author delivered his response to the “concerns” of those fans. Hint: it involves his middle finger (as opposed to his Littlefinger).

Separate concerns have already been raised about whether the HBO series based on the books may need to slow down its pace soon, lest it run out of Martin’s source material from which to base the show on. Season 5 will follow the events of the fourth book, with a total of seven planned books, the sixth of which has yet to be released (I tried to not make that sentence completely confusing, but I likely failed). At any rate, this all may spell “prequel time” for HBO if they’re forced to stall.

Still, if Martin does die before completing the seventh and final book, you have to admit that it would be rather poetic, as it would directly mirror much of the “hero death” that’s been witnessed in the series to date. When you’re playing the Game of Thrones, you win…or you die. Let’s hope it’s the former for George.