Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “Unfortunately, a lot of fantasy is chock full of sexism and racism. A lot of authors don’t even realize they’re doing it, and a lot of readers don’t know they’re reading it. That’s what makes it so scary in some cases.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

252. “If your mind had the rare talent of not being fooled by its own expectations, you might notice something else about them, something strange and wonderful.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

253. “He called the wind and the wind came. It was magic. Real magic. The sort of magic I’d heard about in stories of Taborlin the Great. The sort of magic I hadn’t believed in since I was six. Now I didn’t know what to believe. So I invited him into our troupe, hoping to find answers to my questions. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was looking for the name of the wind.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

254. “Stories don’t need to be new to bring you joy. Some stories are like familiar friends. Some are dependable as bread.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

255. “She raised her own glass, filled with a deep red wine. “To Ambrose Jakis,” she said with sudden fierceness. “May he fall into a well and die.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

256. “I trouped, traveled, loved, lost, trusted and was betrayed.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

257. “Performance and music are inexorably tied together. And hell, I’ll watch Brittany’s Toxic music video all day. But there’s a difference between that and listening to Leo Kottke play guitar. One is entertainment. The other is Music.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

258. “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.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

259. “Is there a connection between language and magic? Yes. Ten times yes. So much yes that it almost doesn’t bear talking about. It’s as pointless that arguing that the sun is hot.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

260. “There is something powerfully beguiling about the excited eyes of a young woman. They can pull all manner of nonsense out of a foolish young man, and I was no exception to this rule.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

261. “Bast said. “The truth is deeper than that. It’s... ” Bast floundered for a moment. “It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

262. “Los nombres dan forma al mundo, y un hombre que puede pronunciarlos va camino del poder.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

264. “He gestured at the brief and brutal lay of stones between us. “Look at that. Why would I ever want to win a game such as this?” I looked down at the board. “The point isn’t to win?” I asked. “The point,” Bredon said grandly, “is to play a beautiful game.” He lifted his hands and shrugged, his face breaking into a beatific smile. “Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

265. “So we rode in silence. It was nice just being near her. You wouldn’t think a girl in bandages with a blackened eye could be beautiful, but Denna was. Lovely as the moon: not flawless, perhaps, but perfect.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

266. “The sweet smile of a young woman. There is nothing better in the world. It is worth more than salt. Something in us sickens and dies without it. I am sure of this. Such a simple thing. How strange. How wonderful and strange.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

268. “If that happens, I will not come back and demand a refund. I will not petition the constable. I will walk back to Imre this very night and set fire to your house. Then, when you run out the front door in your nightshirt and stockle-cap, I will kill you, cook you, and eat you. Right there on your lawn while all your neighbors watch.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

269. “Her lips were red. Not the garish painted red so many women believe makes them desirable. Her lips were always red, morning and night. As if minutes before you saw her, she had been eating sweet berries, or drinking heart’s blood.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

270. “A poet is a musician who can’t sing.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

271. “One of my favorite artists on Deviantart.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

272. “And remember, small thaws make great floods, so be twice wary of a slowly changing season.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

273. “Out of class, Elxa Dal was charming, soft-spoken, and even a little ridiculous when the mood was on him. But when he taught, his personality strode back and forth between mad prophet and galley-slave drummer.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

274. “You have a stone in your heart, and some days it’s so heavy there is nothing to be done.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

275. “My granda always told me that fall’s the time to root up something you don’t want coming back to trouble you.′ Kote mimicked the quaver of an old man’s voice. ‘Things are too full of life in the spring months. In the summer, they’re too strong and won’t let go. Autumn... ’ He looked around at the changing leaves on the trees. ‘Autumn’s the time. In autumn everything is tired and ready to die.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

276. “They were the best sort of friends. The sort everyone hopes for but no one deserves, least of all me.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

277. “The saying “time heals all wounds” is false.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

278. “It was worth blood and the fear of death to see her fall in love with him. Just a little. Just the first faint breath of love, so light she probably didn’t notice it herself. It wasn’t dramatic, like some bolt of lightning with a crack of thunder following. It was more like when flint strikes steel and the spark fades almost too fast for you to see. But still, you know it’s there, down where you can’t see, kindling.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

279. “She’s obviously stupid for you. And you’re just plain stupid, so it’s a great match.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

280. “The three boys, one dark, one light, and one – for lack of a better word – fiery, do not notice the night. Perhaps some part of them does, but they are young, and drunk, and busy knowing deep in their hearts that they will never grow old or die. They also know that they are friends, and they share a certain love that will never leave them. The boys know many other things, but none of them seem as important as this. Perhaps they are right.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

281. “Admit me for more than two jots and I will not be able to attend. Admit me for less and I will be here every day, while every night I will do what it takes to stay alive while I study here. I will sleep in alleys and stables, wash dishes for kitchen scraps, beg pennies to buy pens. I will do whatever it takes.” I said the last words fiercely, almost snarling them.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

282. “I’ve got an idea for a modern day faerie tale that I think would made a great short novel. But I just don’t have the time to work on it right now. I’m way too busy with the ‘Kingkiller Chronicles’ and being a new dad.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

283. “I just don’t understand what you see in her,” Sim said carefully. “I know she’s charming. Fascinating and all of that. But she seems rather,” he hesitated, “cruel.” I nodded. “She is.” Simmon watched me expectantly, finally said. “What? No defense for her?” “No. Cruel is a good word for her. But I think you are saying cruel and thinking something else. Denna is not wicked, or mean, or spiteful. She is cruel.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

284. “De modo que esa es la diferencia entre contar una historia y estar dentro una historia: el miedo.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

285. “It’s not their fault that the world is full of hard choices and hunger and loneliness,” she said. “What can you expect of people when demons are their neighbors?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

286. “It was, I thought idly, the most polite punch I’d ever seen. It was the careful blow of a skilled carpenter pounding a nail: hard enough to drive it fully home, but not so hard as to bruise the wood around it.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

287. “I’m so tired of being appreciated for my intellect.” She leaned back and stretched her arms over her head. “When will I be able to find a nice boy who just wants me for my body?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

288. “This was nothing,” I said nonchalantly. “Once I jumped off a roof.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

289. “That is like throwing two virgins into a bed. Enthusiasm, passion, and ignorance are not a good combination. Someone is likely to get hurt.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

290. “Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That’s why stories appeal to us. They give is the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

291. “By your logic I should also be in charge of Solinade dances, needlework, and horse thieving.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

292. “And we sang! Her voice like burning silver, my voice an echoing answer. Savien sang solid, powerful lines, like branches of a rock-old oak, all the while Aloine was like a nightingale, moving in darting circles around the proud limbs of it.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

293. “Distrust turns quickly to dislike.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

294. “I’m about to die of terminal curiosity, you know.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

295. “I have always thought,” Alveron said at last, introducing the topic of our discussion, “that everyone has a question that rests in the center of who they are.” “How do you mean, your grace?” “I believe everyone has some question that drives them. A question that keeps them awake nights. A question they worry at like a dog with an old bone. If you understand a man’s question, it brings you closer to understanding the man himself.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

296. “You know, I could have carried you.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

297. “Generally my favorite remarks always come from my readers. I’ve had people say my books made them laugh, or cry, or that it frightened them late at night.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

298. “Things are too full of life in the spring months. In the summer, they’re too strong and won’t let go. Autumn... ” He looked around at the changing leaves on the trees. “Autumn’s the time. In autumn everything is tired and ready to die.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

299. “Now,” Kvothe said angrily, “you’ve both acted understandably, but that does not by any means mean that either of you have behaved well.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

300. “Everything said, you couldn’t hope for a nicer day to have a half dozen ex-soldiers with hunting bows relieve you of everything you owned.”

— Patrick Rothfuss