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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

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Patrick Rothfuss
Age: 51
Born: 1973
Born: June 6
Novelist
Teacher
Writer
Madison
Wisconsin
Patrick James Rothfuss
People
Humor
Full
Ring
True
Rings
Ever
Clever
Book
Hardest
Writing
Jokes
Going
Reader
Kind
Nobody

More quotes by Patrick Rothfuss

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There is only one Whedon, and I am his prophet.
Patrick Rothfuss
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A lot of new writers assume you have to know the where the story is going and that it flows out as molten gold. But really, sometimes you think you are going to one place, but then you decide that is dumb idea. Then you go somewhere else and it is a worse idea. But then you switch again and you might have a beautiful accident.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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
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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.
Patrick Rothfuss
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But how awful would that be? How terrible to live surrounded by the stark, sharp, hollowness of things that simply were enough?
Patrick Rothfuss
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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.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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.
Patrick Rothfuss
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I have no balance. My life is a hot mess.
Patrick Rothfuss
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I also felt guilty about the three pens I'd stolen, but only for a second. And since there was no convenient way to give them back, I stole a bottle of ink before I left.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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.
Patrick Rothfuss
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The framed tale is, in my opinion, one of the most natural ways to tell a story. If you think of it, the conceit of the frame-less story is actually the odd way of doing things. Without the frame, how do you know the context for a story?
Patrick Rothfuss
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Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.
Patrick Rothfuss
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I grew up reading Tolkien, and I love him. But I love him in the way that you love that rambly old grandfather. You have to sit through some pretty off-topic stuff before he starts telling his cool old war stories.
Patrick Rothfuss
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Is there a connection between language and magic? Yes. Ten times yes. So much yes that it almost doesn't bear talking about. It's as pointless that arguing that the sun is hot.
Patrick Rothfuss
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Science is just magic with better PR.
Patrick Rothfuss
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When left to its own devices it tends to make me look as if I’ve been set afire.
Patrick Rothfuss
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On his first hand he wore rings of stone, Iron, Amber, Wood and Bone. There were rings unseen on his second hand, One was blood in a flowing band, One was air all whisper thin, And the ring of ice had a flaw within. Full faintly shone the ring of flame, And the final ring was without name.
Patrick Rothfuss
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He then proceeded to shout at Alpha and Beta, a sign that he was in a genuine good mood. They took it as calmly as ever, in spite of the fact that he accused them of things I'm sure no donkey has ever willingly done, especially not Beta, who possessed impeccable moral character.
Patrick Rothfuss
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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