Quotes by Patrick Rothfuss

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

Theres looking and theres looking. When some men look at you its a greasy thing. It makes you want to have a bath. With other men its nice. It helps you know youre beautiful.

I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die.

I heard the silence pouring from them. The audience held themselves quiet, tense, and tight, as if the song had burned them worse than flame.Each person held their wounded selves closely, clutching their pain as if it were a precious thing.

I shook again, tasted plum, and suddenly the words were pouring out of me.She said I sang before I spoke. She said when I was just a baby she had the habit of humming when she held me. Nothing like a song. Just a descending third. Just a soothing sound. Then one day she was walking me around the camp, and she heard me echo it back to her. Two octaves higher. A tiny piping third. She said it was my first song. We sang it back and forth to each other. For years.I choked and clenched my teeth.You can say it,Auri said softly.Its okay if you say it.Im never going to see her again,I choked out. Then I began to cry in earnest.Its okay,Auri said softly.Im here. Youre safe.

Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.

Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.

Music sounds different to the one who plays it. It is the musicians curse.

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.

You,” I said, “are sweet music in a distant room.

Words cannot always do the work we need them to. Music is there for when words fail us.

Lord but I dislike poetry. How can anyone remember words that arent put to music?

You will not find it in the words of poets or the longing eyes of sailors. If you want to know of love, look to a troupers hands as he makes his music. A trouper knows.

As I fingered my way through the songs, I felt my worries slough away. My music has always been the best remedy for my dark moods. As I sang, even my bruises seemed to pain me less.

What is a whore?Unsurprisingly, that hadnt been one of the words we had shared over the last span of days. For half a moment I considered lying, but there was no way I could manage it. He says your mother is a person men pay money to have sex with.Tempi turned back to the mercenary and nodded graciously. You are very kind. I thank you.

I smiled,Deoch, my heart is made of stronger stuff than glass. When she strikes shell find it strong as iron-bound brass, or gold and adamant together mixed. Dont think I am unaware, some startled deer to stand transfixed by hunters horns. Its she who should take care, for when she strikes, my heart will make a sound so beautiful and bright that it cant help but bring her back to me in winged light.

There is a great deal of difference between a penis and a heart.

Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.First is the door of sleep. 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. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the minds way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying time heals all wounds is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind. Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.

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.

There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.