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

• 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.

• 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

• I think authors are just realizing there's no real reason to feel limited to a narrow set of genre rules in their writing. There's no reason a mystery novel can't have fantastic elements in it. Similarly, there's no reason why your epic fantasy series can't have elements of a mystery.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Real, Writing, Epic

• Sometimes when I get up after writing, I'm surprised at how my body feels. Suddenly I'm not a lanky, hungry young boy any more. It's no fun putting on ten years and fifty pounds all of a sudden. Other times, I get up and I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not a weary innkeeper, hopeless, with bones that feel like they're made of lead. I really sink into the characters that I write.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Fun, Character, Writing

• The myth stems from the belief that writing is some mystical process. That it's magical. That it abides by its own set of rules different from all other forms of work, art, or play.But that's bullshit. Plumbers don't get plumber's block. Teachers don't get teacher's block. Soccer players don't get soccer block. What makes writing different? Nothing. The only difference is that writers feel they have a free pass to give up when writing is hard.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Soccer, Teacher, Art

• 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.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Years, Long

  "Interview | Patrick Rothfuss – Part One". Interview with Aidan Moher, aidanmoher.com. June 8, 2007.

• Nobody cooks using just one ingredient. Why would you write using just one flavor of story?

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, Stories, Flavor

• Sometimes I go outside after a long stretch of writing and I'm surprised it's not raining. Or that it's daylight. Or that it's not the middle of winter. I don't know if that level of immersion is normal, but it's now I do things. I like it. It works well for me.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Rain, Writing, Winter

• I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a writer is to follow your initial [writing] plan too stringently. A story needs room to grow and evolve.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Mistake, Writing, Thinking

• 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.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Jobs, Writing, Opportunity

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I have a blog where I keep in touch with my fans. I write about things that are important to me. Sometimes on there I'll just tell a little story about the things that happen in my everyday life. People seem to enjoy them well enough.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Writing, People, Everyday

• If you're going to have a book full of clever people and nobody ever jokes, it's just not going to ring true to the reader. That said, humor writing is the hardest kind of writing there is.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Clever, Book, Writing

• Whenever you write a character, you want to make them themselves, you want to make them unique. You don't want fifty characters in your book and they all pretty much act and think the same except they have different colored hair.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Book, Writing, Character

• 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

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