Works
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Man's Fear
Patrick Rothfuss
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Patrick RothfussUnfettered
Patrick Rothfuss
Patrick Rothfuss:
236
quotes
25
likes
Famous Patrick Rothfuss Quotes
“Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
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.
“Books are a poor substitute for female companionship, but they are easier to find.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Patrick Rothfuss: Trending quotes
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Patrick Rothfuss Quotes
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 86, “The Fire Itself” (pp. 672-673)
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.
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
“Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”
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.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 12, “Puzzle Pieces Fitting” (p. 88)
“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”
Variant: We all become what we pretend to be.
Source: The Name of the Wind
“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
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.
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.
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.
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.
“The boy grows upward, but the girl grows up.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“All the truth in the world is held in stories.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind
“You never do things the easy way, do you?" she said.
"There's an easy way?" I asked.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“You lack the requisite spine and testicular fortitude to study under me.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind
“Are you hurt?"
"Absolutely," I said. "Especially in my everywhere.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 49, “The Nature of Wild Things” (p. 354)
“The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
“It’s not over if you’re still here,” Chronicler said. “It’s not a tragedy if you’re still alive.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 32, “Coppers, Cobblers and Crowds” (p. 227)
“Anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
