Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

“Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“Anyone can love a thing. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket.
But to love something. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011)

“Books are a poor substitute for female companionship, but they are easier to find.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011)
Context: We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.

“Vashet: “I will admit, I’ve never had a studen offer himself up for a vicious beating in order to prove he’s worth my time.”
Kvothe: “That was nothing. Once I jumped off a roof.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“Knowing your own ignorance is the first step to enlightenment.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Patrick Rothfuss: Trending quotes

“Owls are wise. They are careful and patient. Wisdom precludes boldness. That is why owls make poor heroes.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“But how awful would that be? How terrible to live surrounded by the stark, sharp, hollowness of things that simply were enough?”

Source: The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. 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.”

“I just sat there thunderstruck. I realized that's exactly what I had been doing for over a decade with my story. I was writing heroic fantasy, while at the same time I was satirizing heroic fantasy.”

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 86, “The Fire Itself” (pp. 672-673)

“I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die.”

Interview with Fantasy Book Critic (25 May 2007)
Context: Anyway, I was listening to Beagle answer a question on the panel, he said something along the lines of, "I'd never want to write The Last Unicorn again. It was excruciatingly hard, because I was writing a faerie tale while at the same time writing a spoof of a faerie tale."
I just sat there thunderstruck. I realized that's exactly what I had been doing for over a decade with my story. I was writing heroic fantasy, while at the same time I was satirizing heroic fantasy.
While telling his story, Kvothe makes it clear that he's not the storybook hero legends make him out to be. But at the same time, the reader sees that he's a hero nonetheless. He's just a hero of a different sort.

“I also felt guilty about the three pens I'd stolen, but only for a second. And since there was no convenient way to give them back, I stole a bottle of ink before I left.”

“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.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“To be so lovely and so lost. To be all answerful with all that knowing trapped inside. To be beautiful and broken.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

“Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”

“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.”

Variant: Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 26, “Lanre Turned” (p. 203)
Context: “All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

“Normally I miss deadlines like a storm trooper misses Jedi.”

Patrick Rothfuss book Unfettered

Source: Unfettered

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

“It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 12, “Puzzle Pieces Fitting” (p. 88)

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”

Variant: We all become what we pretend to be.
Source: The Name of the Wind

“Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“The best lies about me are the onestold.”

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“Congratulations. That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Ever.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“My point is that doing something like this takes more time that writing another shitty, predictable Lord of the Rings knockoff.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“As far as I can tell, my story is part autobiography, part hero's journey, part epic fantasy, part travelogue, part faerie tale, part coming of age story, part romance, part mystery, part metafictional-nested-story-frame-tale-something-or-other.
I am, quite frankly, making this up as I go.”

On the progress of The Wise Man's Fear in "Concerning the Release of Book Two" (26 February 2009) http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2009/02/concerning-the-release-of-book-two/ Official site Context: My book is different. In case you hadn't noticed, the story I'm telling is a little different. It's a little shy on the Aristotelian unities. It doesn't follow the classic Hollywood three-act structure. It's not like a five-act Shakespearean play. It's not like a Harlequin romance. So what *is* the structure then? Fuck if I know. That's part of what's taking me so long to figure out. As far as I can tell, my story is part autobiography, part hero's journey, part epic fantasy, part travelogue, part faerie tale, part coming of age story, part romance, part mystery, part metafictional-nested-story-frame-tale-something-or-other. I am, quite frankly, making this up as I go. If I get it right, I get something like The Name of the Wind. Something that makes all of us happy. But if I fuck it up, I'll end up with a confusing tangled mess of a story. Now I'm not trying to claim that I'm unique in this. That I'm some lone pioneer mapping the uncharted storylands. Other authors do it too. My point is that doing something like this takes more time that writing another shitty, predictable Lord of the Rings knockoff. Sometimes I think it would be nice to write a that sort of book. It would be nice to be able to use those well-established structures like a sort of recipe. A map. A paint-by-numbers kit. It would be so much easier, and quicker. But it wouldn't be a better book. And it's not really the sort of book I want to write.

“Don’t get me wrong, magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That’s a story. Handled properly, it’s more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.”

“On the rare occasion I miss the news and feel the need to absorb some fearmongering bullshit, I just drop a tab of acid and read a Lovecraft story. There's less pretense that way.”

Interview in Publisher Weekly in 2011 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/45944-exploring-the-edge-of-the-fantasy-map-pw-talks-with-patrick-rothfuss.html Context: Fantasy is my favorite genre for reading and writing. We have more options than anyone else, and the best props and special effects. That means if you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while you're at it? Go ahead. Nothing's off limits. But the endless possibility of the genre is a trap. It's easy to get distracted by the glittering props available to you and forget what you're supposed to be doing: telling a good story. Don’t get me wrong, magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That’s a story. Handled properly, it’s more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.

“Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating… but there are other ways to understanding.”

On his Interesting times….(3 February 2010) http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2010/02/interesting-times.html Official site Context: I really don't go in for talking about current events on the blog. The main reason for this is the fact that I am profoundly out of touch with the outside world. I don't have cable and I don't watch the news. On the rare occasion I miss the news and feel the need to absorb some fearmongering bullshit, I just drop a tab of acid and read a Lovecraft story. There's less pretense that way.

“We are more than the parts that form us.”

Source: The Name of the Wind

“The boy grows upward, but the girl grows up.”

“How about this?' Simmon asked me. "Which is worse, stealing a pie or killing Ambrose?"
I gave it a moment's hard thought. "A meat pie, or a fruit pie?”

Source: The Name of the Wind