But how awful would that be? How terrible to live surrounded by the stark, sharp, hollowness of things that simply were enough?
Patrick RothfussRead
As authors, most - most authors, our art is portraying the human condition. Trying to show you what it's like to be somebody else, trying to make you feel for somebody else. That means you have to have a high degree of empathy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the role of authors in showing the experiences of others through empathy.
Patrick Rothfuss highlights the crucial responsibility of authors to portray the human experience authentically. Through their art, authors strive to help readers understand what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes, thereby fostering empathy and connection among people.
Themes
EmpathyArtHuman ConditionAuthorsStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect to introduce a writing workshop on character development.
More from Patrick Rothfuss
All quotes →I wanted to tell her that she was the first beautiful thing I had seen in three years. That 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.
Patrick RothfussRead
Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating ... but there are other ways to understanding.
Patrick RothfussRead
Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man's will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.
Patrick RothfussRead
How odd to watch a mortal kindle / Then to dwindle day by day / Knowing their bright souls are tinder / And the wind will have its way
Patrick RothfussRead
All the truth in the world is held in stories.
Patrick RothfussRead
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