Seven things has Lady Lackless — Patrick Rothfuss

"Its the questions we cant answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and hell look for his own answers."

"There is only one Whedon, and I am his prophet."

"I really dont go in for talking about current events on the blog. The main reason for this is the fact that I am profoundly out of touch with the outside world. I dont have cable and I dont watch the news. On the rare occasion I miss the news and feel the need to absorb some fearmongering bullshit, I just drop a tab of acid and read a Lovecraft story. Theres less pretense that way."

"Fantasy is my favorite genre for reading and writing. We have more options than anyone else, and the best props and special effects. That means if you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while youre at it? Go ahead. Nothings off limits. But the endless possibility of the genre is a trap. Its easy to get distracted by the glittering props available to you and forget what youre supposed to be doing: telling a good story. 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."

"I was heavily influenced by my first attempt at a novel. I started a fantasy novel back in high school, and.... well... it really sucked. It was a plotless, clichéd mess. When I sat down to write this book, I wanted to make something much, much better. I wanted to write something that was pretty much the opposite of that first novel. Also, I read Cyrano De Bergerac, right before I started writing the book. Cyranos character reminded me of some important things, namely, what it really means to be a tragic hero. You dont need a lot of the cliché fantasy trappings to have that cool character. I also read Giacomo Casanovas memoirs soon after starting this project. That opened my eyes to how interesting an autobiography could be, provided the person telling it has a way with words and has lived a sufficiently adventurous life...."

"Nobles’ sons are one of nature’s great destructive forces, like floods or tornadoes. When you’re struck with one of these catastrophes, the only thing an average man can do is grit his teeth and try to minimize the damage."