Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “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.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

352. “It was too full of love. Nothing could shift it. Nothing could turn it from itself. When all the world was palimpsest, it was a perfect palindrome. Inviolate.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

353. “Si estad leyendo esto, seguramente estoy muerto.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

354. “Yes, I cried at the end of it. I did then, and I have every time since. Even a reading of the story aloud will bring tears to my eyes. In my opinion, anyone who isn’t moved by it is less than human inside.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

355. “I realize that I cannot say enough. So. Since I cannot say enough, at least I will avoid saying to much”.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

356. “We shared an apple, passing it back and forth between bites, which is close to kissing, if you’ve never kissed before.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

357. “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.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

358. “I believe it, Chronicler found himself thinking. Before it was just a story, but now I can believe it. This is the face of a man who has killed an angel.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

359. “This story is for all the slightly broken people out there. I am one of you. You are not alone. You are all beautiful to me.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

360. “I don’t speak fluent bumpkin...”

— Patrick Rothfuss

361. “It was more exciting when I didn’t know I had permission.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

362. “Everyone knows one story, I thought. Everyone knows at least one.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

363. “There was a pointed silence from Ambrose, so I lowered my shirt and turned to face Fela, ignoring him entirely. “My lady scriv,” I said to her with a bow. A very slight bow, as my back wouldn’t permit a deep one. “Would you be so good as to help me locate a book concerning women? I have been instructed by my betters to inform myself on this most subtle subject.” Fela gave a faint smile and relaxed a bit.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

364. “But for half a minute she wished it was a different sort of day, even though she knew that nothing good could come from wanting at the world.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

365. “My head felt clear and light, like a leaf floating on the wind.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

366. “I wanted to get inside so badly I could taste it. It probably shows a perverse element of my personality that even though I was finally inside the Archives, surrounded by endless secrets, that I was drawn to the one locked door I had found. Perhaps it is human nature to seek out hidden things. Perhaps it is simply my nature.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

367. “She brought Foxen with, of course. She would hardly trust a place like that to behave in the dark. But since a proper birching of the place required two hands, Auri tied Foxen to a long lock of her hanging hair. Foxen’s dignity was somewhat bruised by this, and Auri kissed him in sincere apology for the affront. But they both knew he took a certain secret joy from swingling wildly all about, making the shadows spin and skirl.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

368. “I’d love to take a stab at writing videogames. There are a lot of storytelling opportunities that really aren’t being taken advantage of in that field. I’d like to experiment with telling a truly non-linear story.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

369. “But even this piece of flattery couldn’t distract me from the fact that I was in the center of the Fae realm, blind, stark naked, and without the slightest idea of what was going on.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

370. “It’s not prowess if you watch 5 hours of TV a day. It’s just how you choose to spend your time.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

371. “But even in the full flower of her fury, Carceret was perfectly in control. She didn’t lash out wildly or snarl at me. She kept her words inside her, burning them like fuel.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

372. “Asking to hold a musician’s instrument is roughly similar to asking to kiss a man’s wife. Nonmusicians don’t understand. An instrument is like a companion and a lover.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

373. “There is only one Whedon, and I am his prophet.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

374. “She felt... less. She felt tamped down. Dim. More faint. Feint. Feigned. Fain.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

375. “We stare at a fire because it flickers, because it glows. The light is what catches our eyes, but what makes a man lean close to a fire has nothing to do with its bright shape. What draws you to a fire is the warmth you feel when you come near.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

376. “Ben’s training has given me a memory so clean and sharp I have to be careful not to cut myself sometimes.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

377. “If you have never been desperately poor, I doubt you can understand the relief I felt. For months I’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop, knowing that any small catastrophe could ruin me. But now I no longer had to live every day worrying about my next term’s tuition or the interest on Devi’s loan. I was no longer in danger of being forced out of the University.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

378. “In truth, they seemed more content and faithful than many officially married couples I have seen since. Our.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

379. “I hope they sang together, as they so often did. I hope they retired to our wagon and spent time in each other’s arms. I hope they lay near each other afterward and spoke softly of small things. I hope they were together, busy with loving each other, until the end came.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

380. “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

381. “Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

382. “Patience and propriety. It was the only graceful thing to do.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

383. “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.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

384. “I spoke it soft, but close enough to brush against her lips. I spoke it quiet, but near enough so that the sound of it went twining through her hair. I spoke it hard and firm and dark and sweet.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

385. “I closed my mouth and looked across the water. Inches away, Denna did the same. I could feel the heat of her. She smelled like road dust, and honey, and the smell the air holds seconds before a heavy summer rain.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

386. “Reputation is like a sort of armor, or a weapon you can brandish if need be.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

387. “The Flame” is obvious if you’ve ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple hundred years ago I would probably have been burned as a demon. I keep it short but it’s unruly. When left to its own devices, it sticks up and makes me look as if I have been set afire.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

388. “The difference is between saying something to a person, and saying something about a person. The first might be rude, but the second is always gossip.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

389. “Hespe’s mouth went firm. She didn’t scowl exactly, but it looked like she was getting all the pieces of a scowl together in one place, just in case she needed them in a hurry.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

390. “Both ends of Wains were blocked by fallen rock and earth, but in the middle it was clean as a crucible. Everything dry and tight as you please. No damp. No mold. No drafts to bring in dust. Altogether men or no, it was a seemly place, so Auri was careful to comport herself with full decorum. There were twelve oak doors lining the hall. All fine and tight and bound in brass. Over her long years in the Underthing, Auri had opened three of them.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

391. “She was weary and disappointed with all of everything.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

392. “I grew thinner and more ragged. I slept in rain or sun, on soft grass, moist earth, or sharp stones with an intensity of indifference that only grief can promote.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

393. “Offstage I worry and sweat. Onstage I am calm as a windless winter night.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

394. “Humor is hard, hard, hard. And if you fail with humor, you don’t fail halfway. You drop the ball humor-wise and everyone notices.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

395. “Lord but I dislike poetry. How can anyone remember words that aren’t put to music?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

396. “I want to hear you wound my lovely language with your rough barbarian tongue.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

397. “Besides, there was a dignity to doing things in your own time.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

398. “Vashet shook a finger and cuffed the young girl on the side of her head. It was the same scolding any child receives. Stay out of the neighbor’s garden. Don’t tease the Bentons’ sheep. Don’t play tag among the thousand spinning knives of your people’s sacred tree.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

399. “What can you expect of people when demons are their neighbors?”

— Patrick Rothfuss

400. “Etiquette is a set of rules people use so they can be rude to each other in public.”

— Patrick Rothfuss