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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

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Patrick Rothfuss
Age: 51
Born: 1973
Born: June 6
Novelist
Teacher
Writer
Madison
Wisconsin
Patrick James Rothfuss
Years
Certainly
Diamond
Never
Belief
Publishing
Like
Anyone
Rejected
World
Show
Rough
Shows
Shining
Didn
Rule
Drafts
Writing
Mines
Shines
Work
Mine
Shine

More quotes by Patrick Rothfuss

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You never do things the easy way, do you? she said. There's an easy way? I asked.
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Some tropes are universal. Boy meets girl. Betrayal and revenge. The search to discover a hidden truth.... A mother's love isn't cliché, it's universal. These things are archetypes. They're the building blocks of myth and legend. They are a big part about what it means to be human.
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For me the really cool parts of being an author don't have anything to do with getting onto a bestseller list.
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I need you to breathe for me.
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With his eyes and those hands there won't be a woman safe in all the world when he starts hunting after the ladies.' 'Courting, dear,' my father corrected gently. 'Semantics,' she shrugged.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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
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The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.
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What are the three most important rules of the chemist? This I knew from Ben. Label clearly. Measure twice. Eat elsewhere.
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That's all that really matters in the end. Stories.
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If you fall, you fall, Elodin shrugged. Sometimes falling teaches us things too. In dreams you often fall before you wake.
Patrick Rothfuss
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All the truth in the world is held in stories.
Patrick Rothfuss
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If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe.
Patrick Rothfuss
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Remember this son, if you forget everything else. A poet is a musician who can't sing. Words have to find a man's mind before they can touch his heart. And, some men's minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly, no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens.
Patrick Rothfuss
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Nobody cooks using just one ingredient. Why would you write using just one flavor of story?
Patrick Rothfuss
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I'd like to work with some of the videogame companies for the simple fact that they obviously need some sort of writer's help. I play videogames, and lately it's hard for me to enjoy them because I'm spending all my time cringing at the corny dialogue, thin characters, and glaring plot holes.
Patrick Rothfuss
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Half a King is my favorite book by Joe Abercrombie so far, and that's saying something.
Patrick Rothfuss
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In brief, worldbuilding is different than setting in my opinion. Setting is a room. A backdrop. It's scenery. But without good worldbuilding, you can't have realistic feeling scenery. You can't have cool, unique backdrops for your story.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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.
Patrick Rothfuss
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Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.
Patrick Rothfuss
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My only real daydreamy casting over the years has been Natalie Portman for Denna. She's an amazing actress, and Denna is going to be one of the hardest characters to pull off.
Patrick Rothfuss