Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 86, “The Fire Itself” (pp. 672-673)
Patrick Rothfuss: Making
Patrick Rothfuss is American fantasy writer. Explore interesting quotes on making.
Patrick Rothfuss:
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“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.”
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.
“That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind
“I'll string a fiddle with your guts and make you play it while I dance.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
“My shrug was so nonchalant it would make a cat jealous”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Name of the Wind
“Looters become looted, while time and tide make us mercenaries all.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“A tree doesn't make a thunderstorm, but any fool knows where lightning's going to strike.”
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“When left to its own devices it tends to make me look as if I’ve been set afire.”
Source: The Name of the Wind
Interview with Fantasy Book Critic (25 May 2007) http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2007/03/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss.html
“Nothing makes a man feel older than a young woman.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 69, “Wind or Women’s Fancy” (p. 512)