Courtney Groenewold > Courtney's Quotes

“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

“All the truth in the world is held in stories.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“It wasn't even a good note. 'If you are reading this I am probably dead.' What sort of a note is that?”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Do you know what it's like to run spellcheck for six hours? It's like a party in purgatory. A party in purgatory where all they have to drink is sugar-free Kool-aid, and the only game to play is Monopoly, and none of your friends show up.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

“Knowing your own ignorance is the first step to enlightenment.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

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

“It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Music sounds different to the one who plays it. It is the musician's curse.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

“Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“No, listen. I've got it now. You meet a girl: shy, unassuming. If you tell her she's beautiful, she'll think you're sweet, but she won't believe you. She knows that beauty lies in your beholding." Bast gave a grudging shrug. "And sometimes that's enough."

His eyes brightened. "But there's a better way. You show her she is beautiful. You make mirrors of your eyes, prayers of your hands against her body. It is hard, very hard, but when she truly believes you..." Bast gestured excitedly. "Suddenly the story she tells herself in her own head changes. She transforms. She isn't seen as beautiful. She is beautiful, seen.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“You,” I said, “are sweet music in a distant room.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“What do they do to students at the University who eavesdrop?” Bast asked curiously.
“I haven’t the slightest idea. I was never caught. I think making you sit and listen to the rest of my story should be punishment enough.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Hours later the blank sheet still stared at me, and I beat my fist against the desk in fury and fustration, striking it so hard my hand bled. That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Why are you smiling?'
'I'm relieved,' I said honestly. 'I was worried I'd given myself cadmium poisoning, or I had some mysterious disease. This is just someone trying to kill me.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

“in my opinion if you have a secret compartment in your lute case and don't use it to hide things, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Stories only happen to people who can tell them.”
― Allan Gurganus

“One of them had a large wooden sign nailed to its door proclaiming, NO SYMPATHY! I wondered what non-arcane visitors might think of the warning.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“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

“I can't count the men who have tried to seduce me away from my virtue by teaching me how to defend it.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“...nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket.
But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“I've waited a long time to show these flowers how pretty you are.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Books are a poor substitute for female companionship, but they are easier to find.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind