Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “She felt... less. She felt tamped down. Dim. More faint. Feint. Feigned. Fain.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

352. “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

353. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

355. “You can’t write good characters if you can’t imagine what it’s like being in another person’s skin. And if you can imagine that, you naturally want other people’s lives to be better. You want to make that happen.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

356. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

361. “In the midst of fear Lyra knelt by Lanre’s body and breathed his name. Her voice was a beckoning. Her voice was love and longing. Her voice called him to live again. But Lanre lay cold and dead.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

362. “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

363. “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

364. “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

365. “Anyone who thinks boys are innocent and sweet has never been a boy himself, or has forgotten it. And anyone who thinks men aren’t hurtful and cruel at times must not leave his house often.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

366. “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

367. “Todos nos convertimos en lo que pretendemos ser.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

369. “Owls are wise. They are careful and patient. Wisdom precludes boldness.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

370. “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

371. “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

372. “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

373. “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

374. “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

375. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

378. “Three circles. Perfect for asking. It was better to be gentle and polite. It was the worst sort of selfishness to force yourself upon the world.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

379. “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

380. “When you read a fantasy novel part of the fun is getting to explore a new world. Everyone knows that. But I believe the same is true about characters. You can explore interesting people in the same way that you explore a town or a culture.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

381. “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

382. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

384. “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

385. “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

386. “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

387. “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

388. “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

389. “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

390. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

393. “Auri’s heart beat faster then. It had been ages since she’d come on somewhere wholly new. A place that dared to be entirely itself.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

395. “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

396. “Most games follow a real railroad plot, no matter what you want, you’re following their storyline to its unavoidable conclusion. I’d like to write a game where your character can follow any number of possible story arcs and sub-plots.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

397. “Some days simply lay on you like stones.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

400. “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