Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “She didn’t fall, but oh, her heart went icy in her chest. She sat down hard upon the steps. Too numb to walk. Her heart was cold and white as chalk.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

452. “Nobody cooks using just one ingredient. Why would you write using just one flavor of story?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

454. “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

455. “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

456. “Always think about what you’re singing, honey.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

457. “A well-spoken sentence in Aturan is a straight line pointing. A well-spoken sentence in Adem is like a spiderweb, each strand with a meaning of its own, a piece of something greater, more complex.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

458. “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

459. “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

460. “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

461. “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

462. “There are some silences that even words cannot drive away.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

464. “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

465. “She shelled the nuts and toasted them, jiggling them about in the pan. She sprinkled them with salt and ate them each by each. Some were bitter. Some were sweet. Some were hardly anything. That was just the way of things.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

466. “That is also an idiom.” Wilem grumbled. “Your language is thick with nonsense. I wonder how any of you understand each other. How is everything going? Going where?” He shook his head.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

467. “The Chancellor looked down at the empty table for a minute. Then he shrugged, looked up, and gave a surprisingly jaunty smile. “All in favor of admitting first-term Kvothe’s reckless use of sympathy as proof of mastery of basic principles of sympathy vote by show of hands.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

471. “Over the last month I had pulled a woman from a blazing inferno. I had called fire and lighting down on assassins and escaped to safety. I had even killed something that could have been either a dragon or a demon, depending on your point of view. But there in that room was the first time I actually felt like any sort of hero. If you are looking for a reason for the man I would eventually become, if you are looking for a beginning, look there.”

— 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. “I have not forgotten that she is what I am moving toward. If I seem to be caught in a slow circling of the subject, it is only appropriate, as she and I have always moved toward each other in slow circles.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

474. “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

475. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

477. “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

478. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

481. “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

482. “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

483. “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

484. “The world needs people like you,′ Simmon said in the tone of voice that let me know he was turning philosophical. ‘You get things done. Not always the best way, or the most sensible way, but it gets done nonetheless. You’re a rare creature.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

488. “Answers were always important, but they were seldom easy.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

489. “I knew that he was trying to do me a favor, and a week ago I would have jumped at the opportunity for free shoes. But for some reason I didn’t feel right about it. I quietly gathered up my things and left a pair of copper jots on his stool before I left. Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

490. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

493. “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

494. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

496. “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

497. “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

498. “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

499. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss