Patrick Rothfuss Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• 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.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Mother, Children, Moving

  "Exploring the Edge of the Fantasy Map: PW Talks with Patrick Rothfuss". Interview with Paul Goat Allen, www.publishersweekly.com. January 31, 2011.

• If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Novel, Needed

  "10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Patrick Rothfuss". Amazon Interview, www.amazon.de.

• There is nothing I can't do writing in Fantasy. I can have romance, I can have mystery, I can have drama, I can have good characters - I can have everything you can do in any other genre... plus a dragon.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Drama, Character, Writing

• I think the tendency to over-explain and over describe is one of the most common failings in fantasy. It's an unfortunate piece of Tolkien's legacy. Don't get me wrong, Tolkien was a great worldbuilder, but he got a little caught up describing his world at times, at the expense of the overall story.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Thinking, Legacy

• 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

  Writing, Years, Shining

• I have heard what poets write about women. They rhyme and rhapsodize and lie. I have watched sailors on the shore stare mutely at the slow-rolling swell of the sea. I have watched old soldiers with hearts like leather grow teary-eyed at their king's colors stretched against the wind. Listen to me: these men know nothing of love. 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 trouper's hands as he makes his music. A trouper knows.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Kings, Lying, Love You

  Patrick Rothfuss (2011). “The Wise Man's Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two”, p.56, Penguin

• Still, these days when I daydream about the movie, I don't think about the big picture. It's more fun for me to think of little things that would add to the movie. I like to think the powers that be would let me amuse myself with some small things in order to shut me up while they re-write the screenplay to turn Kvothe into a lesbian, shape-changing unicorn.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Fun, Writing, Thinking

• 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.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Plot, Rough Drafts

• Fantasy is my favorite genre for reading and writing. We have more options than anyone else, and the best props and special effects. That means if you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while you're at it? Go ahead.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Reading, Writing, Mean

  "Exploring the Edge of the Fantasy Map: PW Talks with Patrick Rothfuss". Interview with Paul Goat Allen, www.publishersweekly.com. January 31, 2011.

• 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."

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Differences, Worry

  Interview with Peter Hodges and Kate Baker, March 21, 2008.

• I'd love to take a stab at writing videogames. There are a lot of storytelling opportunities that really aren't being taken advantage of in that field. I'd like to experiment with telling a truly non-linear story.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Taken, Writing, Opportunity

• I don't think people need to know much about me to understand the book, or to enjoy it. The book stands by itself. Over the last several years, my life has been all about writing these books, but the books aren't about my life.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Book, Writing, Thinking

• 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.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Letters, Littles

• 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

  Real, Character, Writing

• You need to realize that most writing rules aren't laws, they're rules of thumb.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Law, Needs

• I was nervous about writing Slow Regard.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Nervous, Regard

  "Of Beards and Books: An Interview with Patrick Rothfuss". Interview with Nikki Steele, bookriot.com. November 17, 2015.

• You can't write good characters if you can't imagine what it's like being in another person's skin. And if you can imagine that, you naturally want other people's lives to be better. You want to make that happen.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Character, People

  "Patrick Rothfuss on his charitable fans, priorities, and kissing a llama". Interview with Caitlin PenzeyMoog, www.avclub.com. November 26, 2014.

• For me, language is something that I've always loved. When I read, that's what I look for. When I write, that's what I strive for.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Looks, Language

• When someone writes something dazzlingly brilliant, people want to imitate it. The result is a lot of less-than-brilliant knock-offs. Elves, Dwarves, Goblin army, cursed ring, evil sorcerer. Tolkien did it. It rocked. Let's move on. Let's do something new.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Moving, Writing, Army

• I was reluctant to talk about my kids on the blog. I kept telling myself, "People aren't coming here for stories about your kids. They want to hear about the upcoming books, writing advice, conventions..."

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Book, Writing, Kids

  "Of Beards and Books: An Interview with Patrick Rothfuss". Interview with Nikki Steele, bookriot.com. November 17, 2015.

• 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

  Writing, Speed, Ends

  "INTERVIEW: Author Patrick Rothfuss on his Worldbuilders Charity, Writing, Reading and Giving". Interview with Matthew Jackson, nerdbastards.com. December 9, 2013.

• Writing from a teen's perspective is easy as pie. At least I've actually been a teen. I've never been a woman, or an ethnic minority, or a weary old man. If anything, writing from the perspective of a child is probably easier for me. When I was a kid everyone thought I was so clever and precocious. Now that I'm adult, everyone thinks that I'm kinda odd and childish.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Children, Clever, Kids

• Now the truth is, writing is a great way to deal with a lot of difficult emotional issues. It can be very therapeutic, but that's best done in your journal, or on your blog if you're an exhibitionist. Trying to put a bunch of *specific* stuff from your personal life into your story usually just isn't appropriate unless you're writing a memoir or a personal essay or something of the sort.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Emotional, Issues

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

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Fun, Writing, Hobbies

  Source: aidanmoher.com

• Now it's virtually impossible to write a game that successfully provides challenge and frustration, and that's a shame. We are going to lose something that makes scientists, that makes doers, that makes hard-minded, witty, clever people, and I worry that those people aren't being made these days.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Witty, Clever, Writing

  "Best-Selling Author Warns ‘You Might Not Want to Buy’ His Book". www.wired.com. October 25, 2014.

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