Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “It was more exciting when I didn’t know I had permission.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

353. “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

354. “Tak reflects the subtle turning of the world. It is a mirror we hold to life. No one wins a dance, boy. The point of dancing is the motion that a body makes. A well-played game of tak reveals the moving of a mind. There is a beauty to these things for those with eyes to see it.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

355. “The poorer you are, the more your pride is worth.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

356. “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

357. “He felt himself go cold as he suddenly realized what a dangerous game he was playing. So this is the difference between telling a story and being in one, he thought numbly, the fear.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

358. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

360. “I heard you were in sime trouble,” I said nonchalantly. “So I thought I’d come and help.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

361. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

363. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

365. “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

366. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

368. “But I don’t believe every bit of nonsense that gets rumored about.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

370. “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

371. “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

372. “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

373. “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

374. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

376. “But he was coming. He would be here soon, all sweet and brave and shattered and kind. He would come carrying and clever-fingered and oh so unaware of oh so many things. He was rough against the world, but even so...”

— Patrick Rothfuss

377. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

384. “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

385. “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

386. “You’re important with your green eyes looking at me like I mean something. It’s okay that you have better things to do. It’s enough that I get you sometimes. Once in a while. I know I’m lucky for that, to get you just a little.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

387. “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

388. “Some of my Arcanum bunkmates taught me a card game called dogs-breath. I returned the favor by giving an impromptu lesson in psychology, probability, and manual dexterity. I won almost two whole talents before they stopped inviting me back to their games.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

389. “Once I knew what was bothering me, the greater part of my uneasiness left. Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

390. “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

391. “She tried to slide it back to proper true, but couldn’t see the shape of it and couldn’t tell the way of things and if it was a place where it was right.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

392. “A pinned butterfly holds no delight. A pinned butterfly is nothing like a butterfly at all.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

393. “I’m not a speed writer. I write slowly and revise obsessively. The end result tends to be good. That’s where my strength is.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

394. “To really fear something you have to dwell on it.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

395. “I loved college. I wish I was still taking classes instead of teaching them.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

396. “You know what’s strange?” I said to him through the door. “I tried to think of something funny I could do while you were gone, but I couldn’t.” I looked around at the room. “I think that means humor is rooted in social transgression. I can’t transgress because I can’t figure out what would be socially unacceptable. Everything seems the same to me.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

397. “Sentirse solo era terrible.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

398. “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

399. “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

400. “It’s my belief that you should never show your work to anyone in the publishing world until it shines like a diamond. Rough drafts don’t shine, as a rule. Mine certainly didn’t. That’s why I was rejected for years and years.”

— Patrick Rothfuss