Top 401 Quotes & Sayings by Patrick Rothfuss - Page 6

One of my favorite artists on Deviantart.

I can sell anything to anyone. That is actually my superpower. I am really good at negotiating and persuading.

Hours later the blank sheet still stared at me, and I beat my fist against the desk in fury and fustration, striking it so hard my hand bled. That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.

As a writer, I first felt successful before I was published.

She looked at me. "What? Is there something wrong with my idea?" "It's not very heroic," I said dismissively. "I was expecting something with a little more flair." "Well, I left my armor and warhorse at home," she said. "You're just upset because your big University brain couldn't think of a way, and my plan is brilliant.

I like your manly bravado," she said. "Do it some more.

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

What has made me most proud - the things that I've done that I feel the most pride about - is helping people care about making the world better.

Frequently, an author gets "orphaned" at a publisher. What this means is that an editor buys their book, then ends up getting fired, promoted, or transferred to a different job somewhere else. It sucks for the author because suddenly the person who liked your book enough to buy it isn't around to help you edit and promote it.

It's like the query letter problem that I just mentioned, magnified a hundredfold. You might be good at telling a story, but that doesn't mean you know anything about marketing. Or layout. Or editing. Or publicity. Or selling your books for foreign markets.Everyone can point to a few examples of people that have done very well for themselves self-publishing. But honestly, those folks are lucky as lottery winners.

When the hearthfire turns to blue, what to do? what to do? run outside, run and hide when his eyes are black as crow? where to go? where to go? near and far. Here they are. see a man without a face? move like ghosts from place to place. whats their plan? whats their plan? Chandrian. Chandrian

Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.

You want to publish with a publisher because a publisher knows how to publish a book. And you don't. You really don't.

My bad luck got tangled up with my bad decisions, and I'm paying for it.

Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.

When left to its own devices it tends to make me look as if I’ve been set afire.

Did I ever mention I used to be a delivery driver too? I was. I can read a map. What’s more, using a brilliant mixture of zen navigation, Aristotelian logic, and pure rage I can get you your package and/or delicious sandwich relatively close to on-time.

If you open the door and realize things like the fact that Batman is occupying the same narrative space that Robin Hood used to fill 400 years ago, then you have the freedom to ignore the pointless "what is literature" discussion and just talk about stories.

Now that I understand how publishing schedules work, I can understand why many authors have the sophomore slump. A year is a long time to wait for a sequel, but it's a short, short time to WRITE a sequel.

But it isn’t a rough draft either. The one I turned in several months ago was rough. There were some bad plot holes, some logical inconsistencies, pacing problems, and not nearly enough lesbian unicorns.

I really enjoy work to a purpose. Maybe that makes me kind of strange. In some ways - and this is going to sound awful - it could be that writing is the worst job that I've ever had. Because it's so much more important to me and there's so much more opportunity for failure and I have so many people depending on me. In some ways it's the most satisfying, the most gratifying, and the most rewarding job I've ever had. But I actually would say it's probably the worst job I've ever had too.

I'm just very careful with my words when I write. Obsessively careful. I'm the sort of person who worries about the difference between "slim" and "slender."

It was more exciting when I didn't know I had permission.

I’d heard you were dead.” "I heard you wear a red lace corset,” I said matter-of-factly. “But I don’t believe every bit of nonsense that gets rumored about.

Elodin proved a difficult man to find. He had an office in Hollows, but never seemed to use it. When I visited Ledgers and Lists, I discovered he only taught one class: Unlikely Maths. However, this was less than helpful in tracking him down, as according to the ledger, the time of the class was 'now' and the location was 'everywhere.

If I talk about what I'm good at, I seem like I'm a conceited egomaniac.

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

I don't feel beholden to follow the real world at all. The important thing is to know WHY things turned out the way they did. You need to understand the reasons for events, or at least be able to make reasonable guesses about them.

Joss [Whedon] is an excellent storyteller. It really doesn't matter what medium he's working in.

We need to read good books, and for that to happen, we need to share good books.

However, while being able to think about two things at the same time is a terribly convenient, the training it takes to get there is frustrating at best, and at other times rather disturbing. I remember one time I looked for the stone for almost an hour before I consented to ask the other half of me where I'd hidden it, only to find I hadn't hidden the stone at all. I had merely been waiting to see how long I would look before giving up. Have you ever been annoyed and amused with yourself at the same time? It's an interesting feeling, to say the very least.

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.

There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend.

Then I played the song that hides in the center of me. That wordless music that moves through the secret places in my heart. I played it carefully, strumming it slow and low into the dark stillness of the night. I would like to say it is a happy song, that it is sweet and bright, but it is not.

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

I have no balance. My life is a hot mess.

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

Here's the thing: Authors live or die by recommendations. [That's one of the reason I review so many books on Goodreads.] Giving books you love good reviews is one of the nicest things you can do for an author. What's more it's good for the entire community.

I can't count the men who have tried to seduce me away from my virtue by teaching me how to defend it.

We try to spread the word about the charity by doing fun little stunts to catch people's attention. Like when Hank Green did a music video for us.

That's all that really matters in the end. Stories.

For people who don't know, the fundraiser works like this: people donate to Worldbuilders and they're automatically entered to win geeky swag in the lottery. We're just starting week two and we're already giving away more than $40,000 of books and games.

Writing a good query letter has very little to do with writing a good novel. But if you can't write the one, it makes it really hard to get the other published.

There is only one Whedon, and I am his prophet.

The thing that helps me do a good job is that I don't feel the need to explain everything about the world to my reader. I'm not writing a history text on the Four Corners. I'm telling a story that's set there. The setting belongs in the background for the most part, and it's easy for fantasy authors to forget that. That's one of the unfortunate parts of Tolkien's legacy, in my opinion. Read the first hundred pages of the Fellowship of the Ring and you start to get pissed, "Shut up about the Shire's museums! Isn't the world supposed to be in peril or something?"

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.

Coming to grips with being a bit of a celebrity. That's not anything I ever expected to have to deal with in my life.

I was pretty poor for a long time. Not *poor* poor. But college student poor. I lived for most of my adult life living on student wages, then after I got my MA and started teaching, I lived on teacher's wages, which isn't much better.

I'm not a big fan of overt marketing. I'd much rather just put things out there for people to see. I'm just putting it out there for people to see. If people think this is cool, I'm hoping they'll tell their friends.

I don't really have a lot of expensive tastes. What else am I really going to do with my money? Buy a little red sports car? Wear a lot of jewelry? Build a castle? Well... I might do the last one. Maybe. Eventually. But that doesn't mean I can't run Worldbuilders too.

I will say the most raw joy I've experienced reading has probably come from the times I've been reading with my little boys.

My favourite member of the Beatles is Lennon. He might have been crazy. But he's my kind of crazy.

We are more than the parts that form us.

If the beard gives a modifier to seduction, I'm guessing it's not a positive one.

I have had a few gentlemen let me know they find my manly beardiness somewhat alluring. Never any ladies though.

Congratulations. That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Ever.

I'm honestly not a big fan of pitching things. I'm a firm believer of letting the product speak for iteself.

After two years of sending out query letters and failing to get an agent, I made friends with an author, who was nice enough to introduce me to his agent. That got my foot in the door.

My most popular blogs end up being the ones where I talk about being a dad.

If you're an actor, you know people are going to recognize you in a restaurant. If you're a rock star, you know people are going to stop you on the street and ask you for your autograph. But as an author? That's not something I was ready for.