Patrick Rothfuss Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Patrick Rothfuss.
Famous Quotes By Patrick Rothfuss
As authors, most - most authors, our art is portraying the human condition. Trying to show you what it's like to be somebody else, trying to make you feel for somebody else. That means you have to have a high degree of empathy. — Patrick Rothfuss
She pulled the cork and sniffed it. "What's in it?" "Sunlight," I said. "And a smile, and a question. — Patrick Rothfuss
Cyphus bears the blue flame. Stercus is in thrall of iron. Ferule chill and dark of eye. Usnea lives in nothing but decay. Grey Dalcenti never speaks. Pale Alenta brings the blight. Last there is the lord of seven: Hated. Hopeless. Sleepless. Sane. Alaxel bears the shadow's hame. — Patrick Rothfuss
Tempi reached out and gripped my shoulder firmly. Then he looked up, met my eye, and held it for a brief moment. Such a rarity for him. He gave a small, quiet smile. "Proud," he said. — Patrick Rothfuss
I was in my early twenties and I was, to be quite honest, a bit of a punk. A swaggering entitled straight white guy who hadn't but a lot of thought into what it might be like to be anything other than a straight white guy. Because when you're a straight white guy, you don't *have* to think about that ... — Patrick Rothfuss
It's a horrible thing to have your body fail you. You never think about it when you're young. — Patrick Rothfuss
It was too full of love. Nothing could shift it. Nothing could turn it from itself. When all the world was palimpsest, it was a perfect palindrome. Inviolate. — Patrick Rothfuss
Speculative fiction is where my heart lies. It's what I read growing up, and it's what I read as an adult. — Patrick Rothfuss
Careful boy, that one will steal your heart. Men fall for her like wheat before a sickle blade. — Patrick Rothfuss
When someone tells you a piece of their life, they're giving you a gift, not granting you your due. — Patrick Rothfuss
[Simmon] "Go on."
I [Kvothe] stayed where I was. "It's not that easy."
"Nothing's ever easy with you," Wilem muttered. — Patrick Rothfuss
Her eyes were dark. Dark as chocolate, dark as coffee, dark as the polished wood of my father's lute. They were set in a fair face, oval. Like a teardrop. Her easy smile could stop a man's heart. Her lips were red. Not the garish painted red so many women believe makes them desirable. Her lips were always red, morning and night. As if minutes before you saw her, she had been eating sweet berries, or drinking heart's blood. No matter where she stood, she was in the center of the room. Do not misunderstand. She was not loud, or vain. We stare at a fire because it flickers, because it glows. The light is what catches our eyes, but what makes a man lean close to a fire has nothing to do with its bright shape. What draws you to a fire is the warmth you feel when you come near. The same was true of Denna. — Patrick Rothfuss
The majority of important things cannot be said outright, they cannot be made explicit. They can only be implied. — Patrick Rothfuss
Does anyone object to me leaving? — Patrick Rothfuss
It's like this: if you have one piece of cake, and you eat it, that's fine.
If you have two pieces of cake, you should probably share some with a friend. But maybe not. Occasionally we could all use two pieces of cake.
But if you have a whole cake, and you eat *all* of it, that's not very cool. It's not just selfish, it's kinda sick and unhealthy. — Patrick Rothfuss
There is a difference between something being essential, and it being necessary. If you take your favorite book and strip it down to what is merely essential to tell the story, it would be butchery. The end result would horrify you. Essential is the bones of the story, but the soul lives somewhere else. — Patrick Rothfuss
I remember one time I looked for the stone for almost an hour before I consented to ask the other half (of my mind) where I'd hidden it only to find out I hadn't hidden it at all. I'd merely been waiting to see how ling I'd look before giving up. Have you ever been annoyed and amused at yourself at the same time? It's an interesting feeling to say the least. — Patrick Rothfuss
Most games follow a real railroad plot, no matter what you want, you're following their storyline to its unavoidable conclusion. I'd like to write a game where your character can follow any number of possible story arcs and sub-plots. — Patrick Rothfuss
Three circles. Perfect for asking. It was better to be gentle and polite. It was the worst sort of selfishness to force yourself upon the world. — Patrick Rothfuss
I am no poet. I do not love words for the sake of words. I love words for what they can accomplish. Similarly, I am no arithmetician. Numbers that speak only of numbers are of little interest to me. — Patrick Rothfuss
She knew the true shape of the world. All else was shadow and the sound of distant drums. — Patrick Rothfuss
This is why there are so few true musicians. A lot of folks can sing or saw out a tune on a fiddle. A music box can play a song flawlessly, again and again. But knowing the notes isn't enough. You have to know how to play them. Speed comes with time and practice, but timing you are born with. You have it or you don't. — Patrick Rothfuss
Think what you want about making babies. Believe in demons. Pray to a goat. So long as it doesn't bruise me, why should I bother myself? — Patrick Rothfuss
It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one. — Patrick Rothfuss
However, while being able to think about two things at the same time is a terribly convenient, the training it takes to get there is frustrating at best, and at other times rather disturbing.
I remember one time I looked for the stone for almost an hour before I consented to ask the other half of me where I'd hidden it, only to find I hadn't hidden the stone at all. I had merely been waiting to see how long I would look before giving up. Have you ever been annoyed and amused with yourself at the same time? It's an interesting feeling, to say the very least. — Patrick Rothfuss
...and he was absolutely not a selas sort. — Patrick Rothfuss
It was one of those perfect Autumn days so common in stories and rare in the real world. — Patrick Rothfuss
Don't put beets in the soup, Reshi. They're foul. — Patrick Rothfuss
Do not mistake me for my mask. You see light dappling on the water and forget the deep, cold dark beneath. — Patrick Rothfuss
Beyond all other trees," she said with a curl of a smile on her elegant mouth, "the willow moves to the wind's desire. — Patrick Rothfuss
Soft fantasy worlds have a much looser cause-and-effect relationship. Alchemists can turn lead into gold and nobody wonders about how it will impact the currency system. Someone waves a wand and turns an elephant into a mouse and nobody worries about conservation of mass. — Patrick Rothfuss
The slow regard of silent things had wafted off the moisture in the air. — Patrick Rothfuss
I have always been most comfortable at night. — Patrick Rothfuss
As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man's will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself. — Patrick Rothfuss
You are unmannerly,sharp-tounged, and show no respect for your betters,which is practically everyone given your lowly ravel birth."
"I am Edema Ruh to my bones.
That means my blood is red.
It means I breathe the free air and walk where my feet take me.
I do not cringe and fawn like a dog at a man's title.
That looks like pride to people who have spent their lives cultivating supple spines"
-Kvothe — Patrick Rothfuss
Some streets are dangerous as frothing dogs, where no amount of care will keep you safe. — Patrick Rothfuss
This was appropriate, as it was the greatest silence of the three, wrapping the others inside itself. — Patrick Rothfuss
If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe. — Patrick Rothfuss
But sometimes the best help a person can find is helping someone else. — Patrick Rothfuss
Did I ever mention I used to be a delivery driver too? I was. I can read a map. What's more, using a brilliant mixture of zen navigation, Aristotelian logic, and pure rage I can get you your package and/or delicious sandwich relatively close to on-time. — Patrick Rothfuss
Denna peered out of the hedge toward the path, and I looked at her. Her hair fell like a curtain down the side of her head, and the tip of her ear was peeking through it. It was, at that moment, the most lovely thing I had ever seen. — Patrick Rothfuss
The law of sympathy is one of the most basic parts of magic. It states that the more similar two objects are, the greater the sympathetic link. The greater the link, the more easily they influence each other. — Patrick Rothfuss
My parents danced together, her head on his chest. Both had their eyes closed. They seemed so perfectly content. If you can find someone like that, someone who you can hold and close your eyes to the world with, then you're lucky. Even if it only lasts for a minute or a day. The image of them gently swaying to the music is how I picture love in my mind even after all these years. — Patrick Rothfuss
There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind. — Patrick Rothfuss
He suggested several unpleasant, unsanitary things I could do to myself at my earliest convenience. — Patrick Rothfuss
Then I played the song that hides in the center of me. That wordless music that moves through the secret places in my heart. I played it carefully, strumming it slow and low into the dark stillness of the night. I would like to say it is a happy song, that it is sweet and bright, but it is not. — Patrick Rothfuss
I watched her sleep with the calm contentment of a boy who has no idea of how foolish he is, or what unexpected tragedies the following day will bring. — Patrick Rothfuss
You can tell a lot about a person by their feet,' he mused. 'Some men come in here, smiling and laughing, shoes all clean and brushed, socks all powdered up. But when the shoes are off, their feet smell just fearsome. Those are the people that hide things. They've got bad smelling secrets and they try to hide 'em, just like they try to hide their feet.'
He turned to look at me. 'It never works though. Only way to stop your feet from smelling is to let them air out a bit. Could be the same thing with secrets. I don't know about that, though. I just know about shoes. — Patrick Rothfuss
The key needed urgent tending. It was for certain the most restless of the lot. This wasn't even a slim sliver of surprise. Keys were hardly known for their complacency, and this one was near howling for a lock. Auri picked it up and turned it in her hands. A door key. It wasn't shy about the fact at all. — Patrick Rothfuss
The myth of writer as, like, Asperger-style misanthrope, or, like, the Jack Nicholson, 'As Good As It Gets' - it just doesn't work, because writers, in order to write good characters, need to understand people. You need to understand your audience. You need to have so much empathy you could almost encourage empathy in others. — Patrick Rothfuss
Chronicler picked up his pen, but before he could dip it, Kvothe held up a hand. Let me say one thing before I start. I've told stories in the past, painted pictures with words, told hard lies and harder truths. Once, I sang colors to a blind man. Seven hours I played, but at the end he said he saw them, green and red and gold. That, I think, was easier than this. Trying to make you understand her with nothing more than words. You have never seen her, never heard her voice. You cannot know. — Patrick Rothfuss
I'll admit, I was disappointed to learn that dragons didn't exist. That's a hard lesson for a boy to learn. — Patrick Rothfuss
No one enjoys being talked down to, but I have a particular aversion to it. — Patrick Rothfuss
Besides, there was a dignity to doing things in your own time. — Patrick Rothfuss
If you're going to have a book full of clever people and nobody ever jokes, it's just not going to ring true to the reader. That said, humor writing is the hardest kind of writing there is. — Patrick Rothfuss
Are you expecting someone to poison you?" he said, somewhat taken aback.
"Not really. But it seems to me that if you wait around until you know you need an antidote, it's probably too late to pick one up. — Patrick Rothfuss
Do you know why they call this place the Rookery?" Elodin asked. I shook my head.
"Because it's where you go if you're a-ravin'." He smiled a wild smile. He laughed a terrible laugh. — Patrick Rothfuss
Generally my favorite remarks always come from my readers. I've had people say my books made them laugh, or cry, or that it frightened them late at night. — Patrick Rothfuss
Sometimes when I get up after writing, I'm surprised at how my body feels. Suddenly I'm not a lanky, hungry young boy any more. It's no fun putting on ten years and fifty pounds all of a sudden. Other times, I get up and I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not a weary innkeeper, hopeless, with bones that feel like they're made of lead. I really sink into the characters that I write. — Patrick Rothfuss
Half a King is my favorite book by Joe Abercrombie so far, and that's saying something. — Patrick Rothfuss
That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink. — Patrick Rothfuss
Graciousness is the luxury of the wise, — Patrick Rothfuss
I'm just very careful with my words when I write. Obsessively careful. I'm the sort of person who worries about the difference between "slim" and "slender. — Patrick Rothfuss
Now, this pair," he waved the shoes he held, "are new. They haven't been walked a mile, and for new shoes like these I charge a talent, maybe a talent and two." He pointed at my feet. "Those shoes, on the other hand, are used, and I don't sell used shoes."
He turned his back on me and started to tidy his workbench rather aimlessly, humming to himself ...
I knew that he was trying to do me a favor, and a week ago I would have jumped at the opportunity for free shoes. But for some reason I didn't feel right about it. I quietly gathered up my things and left a pair of copper jots on his stool before I left.
Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough. — Patrick Rothfuss
If whatever you're going to do is wrong, you might as well do whatever you want. — Patrick Rothfuss
Are you hurt?"
"Absolutely," I said. "Especially in my everywhere. — Patrick Rothfuss
Love is the willingness to do anything for someone [ ... ] Even at detriment to yourself. — Patrick Rothfuss
Damn chicken. Come eat your dinner. I'm cold. — Patrick Rothfuss
The figures of our speaking are like pictures of names. Vague, weak names, but names nonetheless. Be mindful of them. — Patrick Rothfuss
And if that meant she wasn't entirely mine, what of it? I would be the one she could always return to without fear of recrimination or question. So I did not try to win her and contented myself with playing a beautiful game. — Patrick Rothfuss
It's profoundly disorienting to go from zero to celebrity. — Patrick Rothfuss
Congratulations. That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Ever. — Patrick Rothfuss
So Stapes conducted a dinner for just the two of us, then informed me of a dozen small but important mistakes I had made. Setting down a dirty utensil was considered crude, for example. That meant it was perfectly acceptable to lick one's knife clean. In fact, if you didn't want to dirty your napkin it was the only seemly thing to do. — Patrick Rothfuss
After the battle was finished and the enemy was set beyond the doors of stone, survivors found Lanre's body, cold and lifeless near the beast he had slain. — Patrick Rothfuss
When left to its own devices it tends to make me look as if I've been set afire. — Patrick Rothfuss
I read that young Netalia Lackless had run away with a troupe of traveling performers. — Patrick Rothfuss
The deeper we went, the stranger things became. — Patrick Rothfuss
That is also an idiom." Wilem grumbled. "Your language is thick with nonsense. I wonder how any of you understand each other. How is everything going? Going where?" He shook his head. — Patrick Rothfuss
Knowing your own ignorance is the first step to enlightenment. — Patrick Rothfuss
But for half a minute she wished it was a different sort of day, even though she knew that nothing good could come from wanting at the world. — Patrick Rothfuss
It's easy to forget when you're around." She stopped walking for a moment and I had to stop too, as she'd linked her arm in mine. "That's not right. I mean to say that when you're around, it's easy to forget."
"Forget what?"
"Everything," she said, and for a moment her voice wasn't quite as playful. "All the bad parts in my life. Who I am. It's nice to be able to take a vacation from myself every once in a while. You help with that. You're my safe harbor in an endless, stormy sea. — Patrick Rothfuss
What can you expect of people when demons are their neighbors? — Patrick Rothfuss
No hard feelings about that time in the Crucible when you mixed my salts and I was nearly blind for a day. No. No, really, drink up! — Patrick Rothfuss
I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are. — Patrick Rothfuss
When you're 14, anything with a sword and a dragon is pretty cool. But when you're 21 and you've read 2,000 fantasy novels, you start to realize that some of those books, well, they weren't really good. OK, let's be honest. A lot of them were crap. — Patrick Rothfuss
One of them had a large wooden sign nailed to its door proclaiming, NO SYMPATHY! I wondered what non-arcane visitors might think of the warning. — Patrick Rothfuss
The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. — Patrick Rothfuss
They drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news. In doing this they added a small, sullen silence to the larger, hollow one. It made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint. — Patrick Rothfuss
Truth is a troublesome motherfucker unless it's handled properly — Patrick Rothfuss
Bast stood in the doorway, practically dancing with irritation. When he spotted the approaching figure he rushed down the street, waving a piece of paper angrily. "A note? You sneak out and leave me a note?" He hissed angrily. "What am I, some dockside whore? — Patrick Rothfuss
The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present. — Patrick Rothfuss
Information." She tilted her head quizzically. "By the way, — Patrick Rothfuss
I'm not officially a collector, but I have a strange attraction and a weakness for keys and coins. Old keys and interesting coins. — Patrick Rothfuss
Excellence is excellence's only companion. — Patrick Rothfuss
I'll send a boy round to [the crazy farmer] Martin's and ask him to come by with a couple bottles."
"Get five or six," Bast said. "It's getting cold at night. Winter's coming."
The innkeeper smiled. "I'm sure Martin will be flattered. — Patrick Rothfuss