Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

A troublesome question? Those tend to be the only whorthwhile kind.

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

I swear I've never met a man who has your knack for lack of social grace. If you weren't naturally charming, someone would have stabbed you by now.

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?

The desire for knowledge shapes a man.

Science is just magic with better PR.

Simmon pushed his hair out of his eyes, laughing boyishly. "You can't argue your way out of this one! She's obviously stupid for you. And you're just plain stupid, so it's a great match.

Pride is always a better lever against the nobility than reason.

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."

There is a sort of camaraderie that rarely exists except between men who have fought the same enemies and know the same women.

The best lies about me are the ones I told.

Language is inexorably tied to power and understanding. And power and understanding are the roots of magic. Just the act of writing something down is a magical act.

One reason we love fiction is because stories have a comforting shape. They provide a resolution that's lacking in our regular lives.

It's one thing to not want an evil-sorcerer type villain in your story, but it's another thing to avoid having any sort of antagonist at all. A story without an antagonist gets weird pretty quick.

Appearance is a type of power.

It's my opinion that if you're trying to tell a realistic story that centers around realistic characters, you can't help but touch on important issues. Those issues are what make us human.

And if Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that cool props and special effects are not enough. Story comes first. Everything depends on story.

A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection

If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe.

I want to learn how to pick locks, swordfight, throw pottery - it's all research. It's like the curious person's version of James Bond's license to kill. I've got a license to learn.

To be both rich and handsome was bad enough. But to have a voice like honey over warm bread on top of that was simply inexcusable.

If there is one thing I will not abide it is the folly of a willful pride.

It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.

Do you just want to get by? Or do you want to make me proud?

But sometimes the best help a person can find is helping someone else.

Only a fool worries over what he can’t control.

Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.

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!

...nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.

He had a bright, reckless tenor that was always wandering off, looking for notes in the wrong places.

She was a wicked thing sometimes. All full of want. As if the shape of the world depended on her mood. As if she were important.

I only know one story. But oftentimes small pieces seem to be stories themselves.

I do this so you cannot help but hear. a wise man views a moonless night with fear.

I’d heard he had started a fistfight in one of the seedier local taverns because someone had insisted on saying the word “utilize” instead of “use.

I can't count the men who have tried to seduce me away from my virtue by teaching me how to defend it.

It's hard to be wrongfully accused, but it's worse when the people looking down on you are clods who have never read a book or traveled more than twenty miles from the place they were born.

Beer dulls a memory, brand sets it burning, but wine is the best for a sore heart's yearning.

When you love something, you have to make sure it loves you back, or you'll bring about no end of trouble chasing it.

Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?

Just handle the books gently and you’ll get along fine.

Are you hurt?" "Absolutely," I said. "Especially in my everywhere.

I needed to let them know they couldn't hurt me. I've learned that the best way to stay safe is to make your enemies think you can't be hurt.

What has made me most proud - the things that I've done that I feel the most pride about - is helping people care about making the world better.

All stories are true," Skarpi said. "But this one really happened, if that's what you mean.

With his eyes and those hands there won't be a woman safe in all the world when he starts hunting after the ladies.' 'Courting, dear,' my father corrected gently. 'Semantics,' she shrugged.

I decided to dub the room with the good chairs my lutery. Or perhaps my performatory. I would need a while to come up with something suitably pretentious.

Auri," I asked slowly, "are you joking with me?" She looked up and grinned. "Yes I am," she said proudly. "Isn't it wonderful?

I'm not implying that fantasy is for kids. I'm saying that more and more people are finally realizing that there's more to fantasy stories than elves and wizards and goblin armies.

If I'd been whoring before class and waved a corset at him, no one would have thought twice about it!

For me, language is something that I've always loved. When I read, that's what I look for. When I write, that's what I strive for.