Quotes from Patrick Rothfuss

Just handle the books gently and you'll get along fine.

But how awful would that be? How terrible to live surrounded by the stark, sharp, hollowness of things that simply were enough?

Some days simply lay on you like stones.

Do not mistake me for my mask. You see light dappling on the water and forget the deep, cold dark beneath.

He taught only one class: 'Unlikely Maths'. But since the time was listed as "now" and the place, "everywhere," this was hardly helpful in tracking him down.

Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady.

I only know one story. But oftentimes small pieces seem to be stories themselves.

She taught me I should never do anything in private I did not want talked about in public, and cautioned me not to talk in my sleep.

We all become what we pretend to be.

I knelt and opened up my lute case. Moving the lute aside, I pressed the lid of the secret compartment and twisted it open. I slid Threpe's sealed letter inside, where it joined the hollow horn with Nina's drawing and a small sack of dried apple I had stowed there. There was nothing special about the dried apple, but in my opinion if you have a secret compartment in your lute case and don't use it to hide things, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.

Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?

You are not wise enough to fear me as I should be feared.

That was another lesson I had learned perhaps too well: people meant pain.

A poet is a musician who can't sing.

I won the only duel I ever lost.

Roses! I swear you men have all your romance from the same worn book. Flowers are a good thing, a sweet thing to give a lady. But it is always roses, always red, and always perfect hothouse blooms when they can come by them.

for most practical purposes, Tarbean had two parts: Waterside and Hillside. Waterside is where people are poor. That makes them beggars, thieves and whores. Hillside is where people are rich. That makes them solicitors, politicians and courtesans.

But sometimes the best help a person can find is helping someone else.

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.

What use is care ? What good is watching for that matter? People are forever watching things. They should be seeing . I see the things I look at. I am a see-er.

But no. There is a difference between the truth and what we wish were true.

Poor manners on my part. What is your name?" "Ria." "Ria, is that short for Rian?" "Yes, it is," she smiled. "Rian, would you please cross your legs?" The request was made with such an earnest tone that not even a titter escaped the class. Looking puzzled, Rian crossed her legs. "Now that the gates of hell are closed," Hemme said in his normal rougher tones. "We can begin.

Then I felt something inside me break and music began to pour out into the quiet. My fingers danced; intricate and quick they spun something gossamer and tremulous into the circle of light our fire had made. The music moved like a spiderweb stirred by a gentle breath, it changed like a leaf twisting as it falls to the ground, and it felt like three years Waterside in Tarbean, with a hollowness inside you and hands that ached from the bitter cold.

It's a shame you left without a word, you know. She was just beginning to trust you before that. Before you got angry. Before you ran off. Just like every other man in her life. Lusting after her, full of sweet words, then just walking away. Leaving her alone. Good thing she's used to it by now, isn't it? Otherwise you might have hurt her. Otherwise you just might have broken that poor girl's heart