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Patrick Rothfuss

It all began when Pat Rothfuss was born to a marvelous set of parents. Throughout his formative years they encouraged him to do his best, gave him good advice, and were no doubt appropriately dismayed when he failed to live up to his full potential.

In high-school Pat was something of a class clown. His hobbies included reading a novel or two a day and giving relationship advice to all his friends despite the fact that he had never so much as kissed a girl. He also role-played and wrote terrible stories about elves. He was pretty much a geek.

Most of Pat's adult life has been spent in the University Wisconsin Stevens Point. In 1991 he started college in order to pursue a career in chemical engineering, then he considered clinical psychology. In 1993 he quit pretending he knew what he wanted to do with his life, changed his major to "undecided," and proceeded to study whatever amused him. He also began writing a book....

For the next seven years Pat studied anthropology, philosophy, eastern religions, history, alchemy, parapsychology, literature, and writing. He studied six different martial arts, practiced improv comedy, learned how to pick locks, and became a skilled lover of women. He also began writing a satirical advice column which he continues to this day: The College Survivial Guide. Through all of this he continued to work on his novel.

In 2000 Pat went to grad school for English literature. Grad school sucked and Pat hated it. However, Pat learned that he loved to teach. He left in 2002 with his masters degree, shaking the dust from his feet and vowing never to return. During this period of time his novel was rejected by roughly every agent in the known universe.

Now Pat teaches half-time at his old school as an assistant-sub-lecturer. He is underpaid but generally left alone to do as he sees fit with his classes. He is advisor for the college feminists, the fencing club, and, oddly enough, a sorority. He still roll-plays occasionally, but now he does it in an extremely sophisticated, debonair way.

Through a series of lucky breaks, he has wound up with the best agent and editor imaginable, and the first book of his trilogy has been published under the title "The Name of the Wind."

Though it has only been out since April 2007, it has already been sold in 26 foreign countries and won several awards.

Pat has been described as "a rough, earthy iconoclast with a pipeline to the divine in everyone's subconscious." But honestly, that person was pretty drunk at the time, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.


“Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other is to lend.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Utilizar palabras para hablar de palabras es como utilizar un lápiz para hacer un dibujo de ese lápiz sobre ese mismo lápiz. Imposible. Desconcertante. Frustrante.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“She reached up and lay her hand on my cheek. "You have the sweetest face," she said, looking at me dreamily. "It's like the perfect kitchen."I fought not to smile. This was the delirium. She'd fade in and out of it before the profound exhaustion dragged her down into unconsciousness. If you see someone spouting nonsense to themselves in an alleyway in Tarbean, odds are they're not actually crazy, just a sweet-eater deranged by too much denner. "A kitchen?""Yes," she said. "Everything matches and the sugar bowl is right where it should be.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Don't put beets in the soup, Reshi. They're foul.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I remember one time I looked for the stone for almost an hour before I consented to ask the other half (of my mind) where I'd hidden it only to find out I hadn't hidden it at all. I'd merely been waiting to see how ling I'd look before giving up. Have you ever been annoyed and amused at yourself at the same time? It's an interesting feeling to say the least.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“It slowly began to dawn on me that I had been staring at her for an impossible amount of time. Lost in my thoughts, lost in the sight of her. But her face didn't look offended or amused. It almost looked as if she were studying the lines of my face, almost as if she were waiting. I wanted to take her hand. I wanted to brush her cheek with my fingertips. I wanted to tell her that she was the first beautiful thing that I had seen in three years. The sight of her yawning to the back of her hand was enough to drive the breath from me. How I sometimes lost the sense of her words in the sweet fluting of her voice. I wanted to say that if she were with me then somehow nothing could ever be wrong for me again. In that breathless second I almost asked her. I felt the question boiling up from my chest. I remember drawing a breath then hesitating--what could I say? Come away with me? Stay with me? Come to the University? No. Sudden certainty tightened in my chest like a cold fist. What could I ask her? What could I offer? Nothing. Anything I said would sound foolish, a child's fantasy. I closed my mouth and looked across the water. Inches away, Denna did the same. I could feel the heat of her. She smelled like road dust, and honey, and the smell the air holds seconds before a heavy summer rain. Neither of us spoke. I closed my eyes. The closeness of her was the sweetest, sharpest thing I had ever known.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I am no poet. I do not love words for the sake of words. I love words for what they can accomplish. Similarly, I am no arithmetician. Numbers that speak only of numbers are of little interest to me.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“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
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“It was only then I realized I didn't know the name of Elodin's class. I leafed through the ledger until I spotted Elodin's name, then ran my finger back to where the title of the class was listed in fresh dark ink: "Introduction to Not Being a Stupid Jackass."I sighed and penned my name in the single blank space beneath.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“If there is one thing I will not abide it is the folly of a willful pride.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“The truth is that the world is full of dragons, and none of us are as powerful or cool as we’d like to be. And that sucks. But when you’re confronted with that fact, you can either crawl into a hole and quit, or you can get out there, take off your shoes, and Bilbo it up.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“That is like throwing two virgins into a bed. Enthusiasm, passion, and ignorance are not a good combination. Someone is likely to get hurt.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Only a fool worries over what he can’t control.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That's why stories appeal to us. They give is the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“If power is the only important thing, then Frodo loses against Sauron. Hell, if power’s the only important thing then Gandalf loses against Sauron. If magic is the deciding factor of a fight, then four plucky kids from England get their asses turned to stone by the White Which.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Auri hopped down from the chimney and skipped over to where I stood, her hair streaming behind her. "Hello Kvothe." She took a half-step back. "You reek."I smiled my best smile of the day. "Hello Auri," I said. "You smell like apretty young girl.""I do," she agreed happily.She stepped sideways a little, then forward again, moving lightly on the balls of her bare feet. "What did you bring me?" she asked."What did you bring me?" I countered.She grinned. "I have an apple that thinks it is a pear," she said, holding it up. "And a bun that thinks it is a cat. And a lettuce that thinks it is a lettuce.""It's a clever lettuce then.""Hardly," she said with a delicate snort. "Why would anything clever think it was a lettuce?""Even if it is a lettuce?" I asked."Especially then," she said. "Bad enough to be a lettuce. How awful to think you are a lettuce too." She shook her head sadly, her hair following the motion as if she were underwater.I unwrapped my bundle. "I brought you some potatoes, half a squash,and a bottle of beer that thinks it is a loaf of bread.""What does the squash think it is?" she asked curiously, looking down at it. She held her hands clasped behind her back"It knows it's a squash," I said. "But it's pretending to be the setting sun.""And the potatoes?" she asked."They're sleeping," I said. "And cold, I'm afraid."She looked up at me, her eyes gentle. "Don't be afraid," she said, and reached out and rested her fingers on my cheek for the space of a heartbeat, her touch lighter than the stroke of a feather. "I'm here. You're safe.”
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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“Viajé, amé, perdí, confié y me traicionaron...”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“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
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“A poet is a musician who can't sing.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“You may have heard of me.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Eran unos amigos excelentes. Esa clase de amigos con que todo el mundo sueña pero que nadie merece. Y yo menos que nadie.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Las preguntas que no podemos contestar son las que más nos enseñan. Nos enseñan a pensar. Si le das a alguien un respuesta, lo único que obtiene es cierta información. Pero si le das una pregunta, él buscará sus propias respuestas.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“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
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“The cost of a loaf is a simple thing, and so a loaf is often sought, but some things are past valuing: laughter, land, and love are never bought.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Dawn was coming. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“- Una historia es como un fruto seco - dijo Vashet -. Un necio se la traga entera y se atraganta. Otro necio la tira creyendo que no tiene ningún valor. - Sonrió -. Pero una mujer sabia encuentra la manera de romper la cáscara y comerse el fruto que hay en el interior.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Good lord woman. If i had tits like yours I'd own half the world by now.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Sólo los sacerdotes y los locos no tienen miedo a nada, y yo nunca me he llevado muy bien con Dios”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“This is how deeply rooted stories are, folks. We crave them before we can walk, and we start telling them before we can talk.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Es erwies sich als schwierig, Elodin zu finden. Er hatte zwar ein Büro in den Hollows, nutzte es aber offenbar nicht. Aus dem Vorlesungsverzeichnis erfuhr ich, dass er nur ein einziges Seminar gab: Unwahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung. Diese Information war jedoch nicht sonderlich hilfreich, denn laut Verzeichnis fand das Seminar "jetzt" statt, und als Ort war "überall" angegeben.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I’d heard you were dead.”"I heard you wear a red lace corset,” I said matter-of-factly. “But I don’t believe every bit of nonsense that gets rumored about.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“It’s not over if you’re still here,” Chronicler said. “It’s not a tragedy if you’re still alive.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Then the high king carefully turned the golden screw. Once: Nothing. Twice: Nothing. Then he turned it the third time, and the boy’s ass fell off.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I have an apple that thinks its a pear. And a bun that thinks it’s a cat. And a lettuce that thinks its a lettuce.""It’s a clever lettuce, then.""Hardly," she said with a delicate snort. "Why would anything clever think it’s a lettuce?""Even if it is a lettuce?" I asked."Especially then," she said. "Bad enough to be a lettuce. How awful to think you are a lettuce too.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“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
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“Does anyone object to me leaving?”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“All the truth in the world is held in stories.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“All stories are true.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“Everything said, you couldn't hope for a nicer day to have a half dozen ex-soldiers with hunting bows relieve you of everything you owned.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I'll string a fiddle with your guts and make you play it while I dance.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“You are not wise enough to fear me as I should be feared.”
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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“Some of my Arcanum bunkmates taught me a card game called dogs-breath. I returned the favor by giving an impromptu lesson in psychology, probability, and manual dexterity. I won almost two whole talents before they stopped inviting me back to their games.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I take back everything I ever said about that boy being clever." He turned around to face the bar while leveling an accusatory finger at the closed door. "That," he said firmly to the room in general, "is what comes of working with iron every day.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“No hard feelings about that time in the Crucible when you mixed my salts and I was nearly blind for a day. No. No, really, drink up!”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“I've never really understood the desire people have to quantify a baby. "He's X big and Y long," As if the baby is a fish you're not sure you're going to keep. Or some prize potato you're hoping will win a prize at the county fair.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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“What were you thinking?" Bast said with an odd mixture of confusion and concern.Coat was a long while in answering. "I tend to think too much Bast. My greatest successes tended to come when I stopped thinking and simply did what felt right, even if there was no explantion for what I did.”
Patrick Rothfuss
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