Patrick Rothfuss Quotes

All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It's fiction's business to ask them.

I write for the same reason I read: to find out what's going to happen.

Literature is always trying to show other parts of this immense universe in which we live. It's endless. I'm sure there will be other writers who will discover new worlds.

I write about my life and my own experience, but I also write about things that I have no knowledge of whatsoever.

The best writers attempt to become alternative historians.

The writers of books are companions in one's life and, as such, are often more interesting than other companions.

I'll take a certain concern of my own or a situation and try to frame it around a fictional story, but sometimes just straight-up autobiographical songs work well, and sometimes a story is better. I like stories. I like to hear them. I don't think there are enough of them in songs anymore.

I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.

What I like about writing a stand alone novel is you're starting with a fresh world and fresh characters. Part of what I love about writing is that journey of discovery where it's all new to me as well.

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

All my books are adventures, but they also have a social viewpoint.

I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.

Basically, I just write whatever story grabs me rather than considering the genre.

Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.

Stories aren't the beauty of what did happen. They're the beauty of what could happen.

No, the thing is, we all love storytelling, and as a writer you get to tell stories all the time.

I'm always saying that my books are not autobiographical because they're not. I can't choose any one scene and say, 'Oh, this is exactly what happened to me!' I just use little snippets of things as a starting point!

Writing is writing to me. I'm incapable of saying no to any writing job, so I've done everything - historical fiction, myths, fairy tales, anything that anybody expresses any interest in me writing, I'll write. It's the same reason I used to read as a child: I like going somewhere else and being someone else.

I think you can do a lot with fiction, and in some cases you can say even more in fiction than you can in straight-up documentary journalism.

Fiction isn't memoir and memoir isn't fiction.

When I am writing a story it feels as real as the life I am experiencing off the page. It's an emotional illusion, I guess.

I don't want to steal anybody's story. I very much want to use the stories that I hear to get lost in my mind, to tell a larger story.

It turned out I really didn't like journalism. I wanted to make up stories, not cover real events.

I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I'm a writer... I write.

I see myself as a story teller.