Top 500 Patrick Rothfuss Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “A pinned butterfly holds no delight. A pinned butterfly is nothing like a butterfly at all.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

402. “She laughed so sweet and loud and long it sounded like a bell, a harp, a song.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

403. “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

404. “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

405. “You can have an interesting story about a person living an interesting life. And if it’s done well, that is just as engaging as the end of the world. A million people dying – we can’t process. One person, we can process.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

407. “A troublesome question? Those tend to be the only whorthwhile kind.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

408. “He suggested several unpleasant, unsanitary things I could do to myself at my earliest convenience.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

409. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

411. “He barely even owned his own name, and even that had been worn thin and threadbare through the years.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

412. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

414. “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

415. “Then, since all my other options seemed to be exhausted, I decided it would be best if I fell off the roof.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

416. “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

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417. “Sentirse solo era terrible.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

418. “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

419. “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

420. “What I personally knew about courting women could comfortably fit into a thimble without taking it off your finger first.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

421. “Cruelty never helped the turning of the world.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

422. “Soon. She knew. Soon he would come visiting. Incarnadine and sweet and sad and broken. Just like her.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

423. “They had spilled their secrets, and Auri knew full well how heavy hard-held secrets could become.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

424. “Bast looked at him incredulously.“The whole world is burning down,“he said.“Open your eyes.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

425. “In closing, she advised me to drink more water, get some sleep, and suggested that in the future I refrain from strenuous physical activity in a hot room the day after falling off a roof.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

426. “I didn’t really have any idea how I would find her. Some foolish, romantic part of me thought I would know her when I saw her. If she were half as radiant as her voice, she would shine like a candle in a dark room. But as I thought these things, the wiser part of me was whispering in my other ear. Do not hope, it said. Do not dare hold hope that any woman could burn as brightly as the voice that sang the part of Aloine.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

427. “The gesture was so tight with rage she feared she’d snap and crack the world in two.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

428. “After a moment he reached out and brushed the unruly red hair back from his face, like a mother would with a sleeping child. Then he began to sing softly, the tune lilting and strange, almost a lullaby:.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

429. “I hate nothing so much as doing a thing badly.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

430. “My fingers darted, then danced, then flew. I played hard as a hailstorm, like a hammer beating brass. I played soft as sun on autumn wheat, gentle as a single stirring leaf.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

431. “Nothing was nothing else. Nothing was anything it shouldn’t be.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

432. “She pulled the cork and sniffed it. “What’s in it?” “Sunlight,” I said. “And a smile, and a question.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

433. “My fear is, what is the larger effect of my book on the world and on the minds of the people who take the time to consume it? Am I contributing in a positive way to the overall kind of collective consciousness of people in the world? I worry about that.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

434. “After a certain point is reached the numbers cease to matter, and all that remains is the faceless mass of a crowd.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

435. “You’d be surprised at the sorts of things hidden away in children’s songs.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

436. “You need to realize that most writing rules aren’t laws, they’re rules of thumb.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

437. “The night is perfect in a wild way, almost terrifyingly beautiful.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

438. “Do you know what it’s like to run spellcheck for six hours? It’s like a party in purgatory. A party in purgatory where all they have to drink is sugar-free Kool-aid, and the only game to play is Monopoly, and none of your friends show up.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

439. “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

440. “You need to decide what you want for yourself. You want to go home? There’s a price. You want control over your life? There’s a price. You want the freedom to say no? There’s a price. There’s always a price.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

441. “She listened, then opened up the door and looked again. Nothing. But simply seeing did not help. She knew that seeming wasn’t hardly half of things.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

442. “I imagine I could do anything,” I said easily. “If you would ask it of me.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

443. “It might not be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonsense.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

444. “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

445. “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

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

— Patrick Rothfuss

447. “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

448. “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

449. “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

450. “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