Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2024 Update)
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451. “I think the best part of being an author is that I get to learn about anything I want and explain it away as research.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

452. “When necessity demands it, I’m an excellent liar. Not the noblest of skills, but useful. It ties closely to acting and storytelling, and I learned all three from my father, who was a master craftsman.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

453. “Quite impressive, to unbind what I have wrought with nothing more than blood.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

454. “Her name was like an echo of an ache in her.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

455. “Their voices were just murmurs, the distant music that a conversation makes when it’s too dim for words.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

456. “My fear is, what is the larger effect of my book on the world and on the minds of the people who take the time to consume it? Am I contributing in a positive way to the overall kind of collective consciousness of people in the world? I worry about that.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

457. “She was not vain enough to work her will against the world. But she could use the things the world had given her.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

458. “But a leader is not a muscle. A leader is a mind.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

459. “But this was not a time for begging favors from the moon. Not now. She could not rush and neither could she be delayed. Some things were simply too important.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

460. “I would pass over the whole of that evening, in fact. I would spare you the burden of any of it if one piece were not necessary to the story. It is vital. It is the hinge upon which the story pivots like an opening door. In some ways, this is where the story begins. So let’s have done with it.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

461. “As he sorted and packed, the red-haired man seemed content. But if you looked more closely you might have noticed that while his hands were busy, his eyes were far away. And while his expression was composed, pleasant even, there was no joy in it. He did not hum or whistle while he worked. He did not sing.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

462. “As a writer, I first felt successful before I was published.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

463. “Should I expect her to always love me best, and most, and only?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

464. “She felt the panic rising in her then. She knew. She knew how quickly things could break. You did the things you could. You tended to the world for the world’s sake. You hoped you would be safe. But still she knew. It could come crashing down and there was nothing you could do. And yes, she knew she wasn’t right. She knew her everything was canted wrong. She knew her head was all unkilter. She knew she wasn’t true inside. She knew.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

465. “She did not dare let it behind her, all unseen. Unseemly. All unseamed.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

466. “I’ve learned that the best way to stay safe is to make your enemies think you can’t be hurt.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

467. “It was baffling. These creatures. The were fraught and frayed win their desire. A snake would never poison itself, but these folk made an art of it. They wrapped themselves in fears and wept at being blind. It was infuriating. It was enough to break a heart.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

468. “It is easier to understand if you think of it in terms of music. Sometimes a man enjoys a symphony. Elsetimes he finds a jig more suited to his taste. The same holds true for lovemaking. One type is suited to the deep cushions of a twilight forest glade. Another comes quite naturally tangled in the sheets of narrow beds upstairs in inns. Each woman is like an instrument, waiting to be learned, loved, and finely played, to have at last her own true music made.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

469. “I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

470. “I’d like respect, but failing that, a little healthy fear can go a long way to making things run smoothly.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

471. “Barbarian that I am, I had eaten all of it. It had tasted quite nice too. Still, I took note of this fact and resigned myself to throw away half of a perfectly good cheese if it was set in front of me. Such is the price of civilization.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

472. “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

473. “You need to decide what you want for yourself. You want to go home? There’s a price. You want control over your life? There’s a price. You want the freedom to say no? There’s a price. There’s always a price.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

474. “What about falling?′ I asked. ‘If you fall, you fall.’ Elodin shrugged. ‘Sometimes falling teaches us things too. In dreams you often fall before you wake.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

475. “This is how deeply rooted stories are, folks. We crave them before we can walk, and we start telling them before we can talk.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

476. “That is how I felt, watching the musicians play. I couldn’t stand it. The everyday lack of my music was like a toothache I had grown used to. I could live with it. But having what I wanted dangled in front of me was more than I could bear.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

477. “Off to one side his fine white teacup waited for him with a patience Aria envied.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

478. “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

479. “My parents were never really married, by which I mean they never bothered making their relationship official with any church. I’m not embarrassed by the fact. They considered themselves married and didn’t see much point in announcing it to any government or God. I respect that. In truth, they seemed more content and faithful than many officially married couples I have seen since.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

480. “Our language is rich with implication, so it is easier for us to accept the existence of things that cannot be explained. The Lethani is the greatest of these.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

481. “It exhasperated her, but she knew better than to force the world to her desire.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

482. “I took the time to fret uselessly about things I had no control over.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

483. “If you’d known how difficult it was, you never would have stood a chance of doing it.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

485. “If I find out that Whin has been sedated or restrained I’ll ride you naked through the streets of Imre like a little pink pony.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

486. “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

487. “In the future, when Joss Whedon and I are best friends and hanging out together in my tree fort, I hope Neil Gaiman comes over too.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

488. “She was a greedy thing sometimes. Wanting for herself. Twisting the world all out of proper shape. Pushing everything about with the weight of her desire.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

489. “So strange and rare. So full of faraway.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

490. “Wrong things never lead to success. If a man acts wrongly and succeeds, that is not the way. Without the Lethani there is no true success.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

491. “She felt flat and scraped as an old hide. Dry as paper written on both sides.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

492. “You did not want things for yourself. That made you small.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

493. “They fight like puppies. They are young, and boys. They are full of anger and impatience. Women have less trouble with these things. It’s part of what makes us better fighters.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

494. “Eavesdropping is a deplorable habit, but I have developed worse ones since.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

495. “But it isn’t a rough draft either. The one I turned in several months ago was rough. There were some bad plot holes, some logical inconsistencies, pacing problems, and not nearly enough lesbian unicorns.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

496. “Then, eyes closed, she brushed the smooth side of it soft across her lips. It was a tender, thoughtful motion. It was nothing like a kiss.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

497. “No matter where you are, people are basically the same. Besides, anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

498. “Don’t put beets in the soup, Reshi. They’re foul.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

499. “You’re sure your new roommate won’t be like the last one who wore tinfoil socks and had a tendency to occasionally urinate in the refrigerator. You’re sure you’ll pass Math 106 this time around. You’re determined to actually join some clubs this year and not just sit around in your dorm eating spray cheese from a can and watching youtube videos about cats.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

500. “Some were bitter. Some were sweet. Some were hardly anything. That was just the way of things.”

— Patrick Rothfuss