Quotes from Patrick Rothfuss

Truth is a troublesome motherfucker unless it's handled properly

The truth is I've worked a lot of things people would consider shitty jobs but I've never really hated any of them.

All the truth in the world is held in stories.

Don't get me wrong, magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly, it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.

One reason we love fiction is because stories have a comforting shape. They provide a resolution that's lacking in our regular lives.

I learned to love the feel of good words.

I'd love to get a chance to talk shop with Joss Whedon. That's pretty high up there on the list.

I love worldbuilding. It's as much fun for me as writing itself. It's like a hobby of mine.

What I'd love more than anything is for Worldbuilders to continue to grow and become entangled in all the different corners of the geek community.

It's one thing to not want an evil-sorcerer type villain in your story, but it's another thing to avoid having any sort of antagonist at all. A story without an antagonist gets weird pretty quick.

Right now my favorite thing is working to recall our absolute shitbag of a governor. He's been screwing up my state for more than a year. I want him out.

It's profoundly disorienting to go from zero to celebrity.

As authors, most - most authors, our art is portraying the human condition. Trying to show you what it's like to be somebody else, trying to make you feel for somebody else. That means you have to have a high degree of empathy.

Isn't that the way of the world? We want the sweet things, but we need the unpleasant ones.

Owls are wise. They are careful and patient. Wisdom precludes boldness. That is why owls make poor heroes.

Humans are kind of story-propagating creatures. If you think of how we spend our days, think of all the time you spend on entertainment. How much of your entertainment centers around stories? Most pieces of music tell stories. Even hanging out with your friends, you talk, you tell stories to each other. They're all stories. We live in stories.

Words have to find a man's mind before they can touch his heart, and some men's minds are woefully small targets.

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.

It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.

There is a sort of camaraderie that rarely exists except between men who have fought the same enemies and know the same women.

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.

I'm a fan of books that are almost languorous in their storytelling. That is a little bit lost sometimes in the modern media that we have.

One thing I've learned now is that I should not say when a book is coming out until I'm sure I know.

Anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.