I know that I'm going to die and that you're going to die. I can't do anything about that. But I can explore it through a metaphor and make a kind of funny, dark story about it, and in doing so, really exhaust and research as many aspects of it as I can imagine. And in a way, that does give me some closure.
Chuck Palahniuk
Related I realized that day that blessings come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. CRAIG GROESCHEL It's funny because a lot of people that know me as a dancer, don't know that I'm a singe... NAIMA ADEDAPO You're not going to say anything about me that I'm not going to say about myself. There'... EMINEM I'm tenacious, I think - I know - and I do also have a quality where if you tell me I can't ... ELLEN BARKIN Sometimes I can't believe I'm going to be 60. I always say there's no point moaning abou... TWIGGY I don't think you can discriminate against budgets, you know? I'm an actor, I guess, so I... RYAN GOSLING Winning isn't everything, but playing and competing and striving and going through things can be... ANDREW SHUE 'Somnia' is a story about loss and, I guess, what you're willing to do to have closure a... KATEE SACKHOFF It's kind of a rule of thumb for me to self-doubt going into any kind of project. I always think... HEATH LEDGER I just heard a very funny story about somebody who died yesterday, I'm sorry to say so but it wa... SOPHIE MARCEAU I work so hard to make that sure I'm successful. If you're positive and really excited and e... SHAWN MENDES 'What do you really think happens after you die?' That's the question that everyone, eve... ELLEN MUTH All you can do is really the prep work and make sure you're ready to hit each golf shot. Outside... RICKIE FOWLER I'm a natural clown, I suppose, in writing, and one has to accept that; I can't do anything ... ANTHONY BURGESS All I ever thought was, 'I'm going to do this as long as I can, and if I can't get paid ... BRUCE COCKBURN Sometimes, when I have a lot of ideas and I want to do a lot of things, or when I'm traveling, I... BJORK The types of climbing that I choose to do I'm good at justifying. I do really try and pick thing... TOMMY CALDWELL I'm not so in a rush to direct just anything because I'm lucky that I can make a living so f... STEVE BUSCEMI When I go to see people, I always kind of hope they are going to play some kind of songs I know. So ... TOM PETTY Man, 2013, I would expect an album from B.o.B and a Rock EP as well. My Rock EP is like... I take pr... B.O.B I think everyone has dreams, and it's just how you go about pursuing that. And I think anybody c... JOSIE LOREN I don't know that I'm going to entirely do cloth diapers. I'd like to be ambitious about... LISA LING I haven't personally in my real life had many people close to me die, but my characters have, an... NINA DOBREV I find that when I play reality-based characters, it is only as fun for me if I have a lot of time t... DARYL HANNAH When doing a series, I look for something that has an idea you can think about, something that I'... DARREN STAR I want to have the fun of doing anime and I love anime, but I can't do storyboards because I can... QUENTIN TARANTINO I think anything that's creative really takes my mind off whatever it is that I'm going thro... NIKKI SIXX This stand wasn't because I feel like I'm being put down in any kind of way. This is because... COLIN KAEPERNICK I don't think know if anything's going to translate anywhere. You're making a movie, you... BEN STILLER I certainly understand that we're all trying to make a living, but I'm not thinking about th... AIMEE MANN I don't know if you know you're funny, but you enjoy being funny. I know I'm funny becau... GREG BEHRENDT What I love about new technology is that it really pushes the art. It really pushes it in a way that... ROBERT RODRIGUEZ Real faith is when you believe in something that you can't see. When things are going really bad... KEKE PALMER So many people always try to help me carry my luggage and help me do things I can do myself. If I ca... CARRIE UNDERWOOD It's a good thing to imagine yourself doing something you think you can't. I do that every d... MERYL STREEP With the exception of octopus, I don't think I've met any food that I didn't like. And b... JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE I just love a challenge, and always have, and will do anything to make it interesting. I'll try ... MALCOLM MCDOWELL I've definitely become smuttier. When I first started out, I had these aspirations: 'I'm... JACK WHITEHALL The way that I look at it is that, when we film for eight months straight for a new 'Jackass'... BAM MARGERA I'm not a go-in-for-the-kill kind of interviewer. It's a great thing to me, that kind of int... IRA GLASS I'm stuck with being No. 32 for the Cleveland Browns. I can't do anything about that, and I ... JIM BROWN My pet peeves are people touching me a lot. Random dudes grabbing me and slapping me across the back... ROB GRONKOWSKI A couple years ago I was going to back off and actually thought about retiring, but it keeps calling... JASON NEWSTED If you tell me I can't do something, that's the worst thing to tell me. And that's what ... GURINDER CHADHA I can't control what's going to happen in the future. I can't control what's going t... SAM BRADFORD I have kept a diary, WITHNAIL AND I I think that every artistic venture is a risk, and it has to be that way, so you do as much preparat... MATT SMITH I always think of it in terms of music. You're not always going to be a huge rock star in music,... DANIEL BRYAN I'm quite sarcastic, and I'm funny, but not kind of funny. It's a weird funny, and some ... MILLIE BOBBY BROWN I think about death all the time. I think that's a good thing because we're all going to die... STEVE GLEASON I am such that person that, when I'm working, I'm like, 'Oh, what I wouldn't give fo... CASSIDY FREEMAN I'm as loyal as anyone and will do anything for people I respect. But if you don't give that... ERIC WEDDLE People make a big fuss over you when you're President. But I'm very serious about doing ever... JIMMY CARTER I loved 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.' I read it later as an adult, but I loved 'We Have Al... SUZANNE COLLINS I give myself homework when I have an audition. I give myself goals, and that's how I check how ... LUPITA NYONG'O I'm asking God to bless you with something that unsettles you, disturbs you, and upsets you. CRAIG GROESCHEL I'm 21 years old, and it's kind of uncomfortable for me to talk about, but I'm in the 1 ... HALSEY Look, you know, you can't please everybody. I'm a stand-up comic. I know that. It doesn'... BILLY GARDELL I can't stand to watch anything that I'm in. I tear it apart. The worst thing you can do is ... ELIAS KOTEAS I'm going to be true to what I want to do, because if I care what people think about me, I'm... DONNY OSMOND Any kind of horror video game where I'm the first-person player and I'm... I suddenly stop c... KIT HARINGTON I don't know how people do it these days - paparazzi and that kind of thing. That's somethin... EDDIE VEDDER I believe that I'm a hillbilly in my values and in my attitudes, and I don't want to lose th... J. D. VANCE I started classes and it wasn't because I was like, 'I want to be an actor!' - I was rea... CAITY LOTZ I don't want to make a mistake that would hurt the cause of Christ late in my life, so I'm g... JAMES DOBSON There's no question that you can explore aspects of yourself through roles that you play, and yo... ANNETTE BENING If I wanna die I may be awesome that I fear nothing. So I can do anything in this earth. Cause I am ... AREFIN BASHAR ARIF We've done as best a job as we can making it clear that I'm earning what I'm earning bec... BEN PLATT My teammates have put me in all different kinds of positions to score goals, and I can't say it ... ABBY WAMBACH I think that maybe that's my weakness, in that I don't know how to do it, so I just do what ... AARON ECKHART I am a candid interview and I have a dark and dry sense of humor - a very Canadian sense of humor an... MICHAEL BUBLE It doesn't matter how much polite self-deprecating fluff you have on the outside if you don'... REBECCA HALL When I have a difficult decision to make, I imagine myself as a 90-year-old guy looking back on his ... NICK WOODMAN It's just about going out and getting the shot, so I have a great understanding of how to execut... DAVID R. ELLIS When I'm writing, I can always play around with tense. I can always make past present. I can alw... JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS I realized I had a novel on my hands, but didn't know where it was going to go. So I thought, ... HARI KUNZRU I know that I'm going out there, and I know that I am going to get hit in the head. I know that&... J. J. WATT You know, it wasn't even that I'm a funny guy, I just loved stand-up comedy and I wanted to ... BILL BURR I speak my mind. If it offends some people, well, there's not much I can do about that. But I... JESSE VENTURA If you don't read it, you don't know. I mean, that's why I have a PR team. They read it ... ANNE WOJCICKI I'm kind of like a middle mix between a warrior diet and a Paleo diet, so I only eat once a day ... RONDA ROUSEY I think that one of the things that you do learn is that falling in love and being in love with some... JULIANNE MOORE I'm so adamant that being a really good parent does not mean you have to be there 24/7. I find t... BROOKE SHIELDS 'Free' is more of that 'familiarity breeds contempt' kind of thing. It's about s... JON CROSBY I don't know if it's a sadistic side or whatever, but you take characters and put them in re... MORTEN TYLDUM As you know, I'm androgynous. I can wear a jacket that most guys wouldn't put on. But you ma... STEVEN TYLER You know, I remember watching Morgan Freeman when he did the two Alex Cross movies, and he's so ... JAMES PATTERSON I'm not in the K-1 tournament. We thought about it but they really don't want me as they fee... LARRY HOLMES I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness whic... NOAM CHOMSKY So many times, people told me I can't do this or can't do that. My nature is that I don'... CHANTAL SUTHERLAND I know that I'm capable of moving around on the guitar. I can express myself the way I want to a... GARY CLARK, JR. I don't see myself as competing with other actresses. I mean, I went through a time when I was i... ANNETTE BENING I think what is nice about 'Elf,' and why it doesn't play as one long sketch, is that th... JON FAVREAU I had between 20 and 40 songs for 'Detox,' and I just couldn't feel it. Usually, I can h... DR. DRE I don't take nothin' from no one. I do what I wanna do. And I'm gonna do that until the ... LIL WAYNE It's crazy to me that in this world of electronic medical records Walmart has so much informatio... ANNE WOJCICKI Nothing bores me more than books where you read two pages and you know exactly how it's going to... GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I don't think you can cry if the script is rubbish. I have to feel it; it's as simple as tha... OLIVIA COLMAN Some people say to be an actor you've got to die to do it. I think it's healthy if you think... KATE ASHFIELD You know, I started this process of being a football player and I'm going to make it to the NFL ... ROBERT GRIFFIN III
More Chuck Palahniuk
You must realize that one day you will die. Until then you are worthless. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The bright future is that readers are accepting more varied forms of stories. CHUCK PALAHNIUK More and more, it feels like I'm doing a really bad impersonation of myself. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake... This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Of the big horror movies of the '70s, you have 'The Omen,' 'The Sentinel,' '... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The best thing about getting a flu shot is that you never again need to wash your hands. That's ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. CHUCK PALAHNIUK My private history in terms of people in my life who are dead is very easy to discuss. I don't f... CHUCK PALAHNIUK We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens jus... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My goal is to create a metaphor that changes our reality by charming people into considering their w... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Portland in particular is a cheap enough place to live that you can still develop your passion - pai... CHUCK PALAHNIUK People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scare... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The lower you fall, the higher you'll fly. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that's usually how you end up crying? CHUCK PALAHNIUK The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it, beca... CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you start in the pit of despair with these profane, awful things, even a glimmer of hope or aware... CHUCK PALAHNIUK A film has to maintain a certain decorum in order to be broadcast to a vast audience. CHUCK PALAHNIUK My grandfather was hit over the head by a crane boom in Seattle. Some of the family claimed he was n... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Movie brawls tend to be bloodless and quick. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Hey, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You decide your own level of involvement. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolis... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person? CHUCK PALAHNIUK The most boring thing in the entire world is nudity. The second most boring thing is honesty. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Hysteria is impossible without an audience. Panicking by yourself is the same as laughing alone in a... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The best way is not to fight it, just go. Don't be trying all the time to fix things. What you run f... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it's just teeth. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open. CHUCK PALAHNIUK What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Parents are like God because you wanna know they're out there, and you want them to think well of yo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring. CHUCK PALAHNIUK For years now, I've wanted to fall asleep. The sort of slipping off, the giving up, the falling part... CHUCK PALAHNIUK We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. CHUCK PALAHNIUK It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Ok. You fuck me, then snub me. You love me, you hate me. You show me a sensitive side, then you turn... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you don't know what you want," the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don't. CHUCK PALAHNIUK There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK We'll be remembered more for what we destroy than what we create. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Beca... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct... CHUCK PALAHNIUK A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You know how both life and porno movies end. The only difference is life starts with the orgasm. CHUCK PALAHNIUK What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too. CHUCK PALAHNIUK When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat? CHUCK PALAHNIUK A menos que todo empeore, nada puede mejorar. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well, it works both ways. CHUCK PALAHNIUK What I want is to be needed. What I need is to be indispensable to somebody. Who I need is somebody ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK No matter how much you love someone, you still want to have you own way. CHUCK PALAHNIUK A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?" "Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, b... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I used rebellion as a way to hide out. We use criticism as a fake participation. CHUCK PALAHNIUK On the other side of the handrail, the hallway's gray marble floor looks as if we've climbed a stair... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Love me, I'll be anyobdy you want me to be. Use me. Change me. I can be thin with big breasts and bi... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Your birth is a mistake you'll spend your whole life trying to correct. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Maybe this is why so many serial killers work in pairs. It's nice not to feel alone in a world full ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Just remember, the same as a spectacular Vogue magazine, remember that no matter how close you follo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Disaster is a natural part of my evolution. Toward tragedy and dissolution. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you tell folks you're a college student, folks are so impressed. You can be a student in anything... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as being a man means looking the w... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Nothing is static. Even the Mona Lisa is falling apart. Since fight club, I can wiggle half the teet... CHUCK PALAHNIUK That old saying, how you always hurt the one you love, well, it works both ways CHUCK PALAHNIUK College is like a fountain of knowledge - and the students are there to drink CHUCK PALAHNIUK “Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You can kill a lifetime without feeling anything but skin. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Love is bullshit. Emotion is bullshit. I am a rock. A jerk. I'm an uncaring asshole and proud of it. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Did you ever think about life as a metaphor for television? CHUCK PALAHNIUK On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. CHUCK PALAHNIUK And maybe you don't go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don't ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Only after disaster can we be ressurected. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Imagine books and music and movies being filtered and homogenized. Certified. Approved for consumpti... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I admire addicts. In a world where everybody is waiting for some bline, random disaster, or some sud... CHUCK PALAHNIUK People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love. CHUCK PALAHNIUK While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes availa... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Las Vegas looks the way you'd imagine heaven must look at night. CHUCK PALAHNIUK It's easy to cry when you realize that everyone you love will reject you or die. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Recycling and speed limits are bullshit. They're like someone who quits smoking on his deathbed. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Maybe we should always assume the worst. CHUCK PALAHNIUK I hate how I don't feel real enough unless people are watching. CHUCK PALAHNIUK We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive.... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The truth is, every son raised by a single mom is pretty much born married. I don't know, but until ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The first step to eternal life, is you have to die. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? CHUCK PALAHNIUK If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character... CHUCK PALAHNIUK When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves. CHUCK PALAHNIUK When nobody will look at you, you can stare a hole in them. Picking out all the little details you'd... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You can't base your life on the past or the present. You have to tell me about your future. CHUCK PALAHNIUK On a long enough timeline. The survival rate for everyone drops to zero. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life. CHUCK PALAHNIUK I dread the promotion part of my job. It's agony, especially compared to the private, at-home jo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Maybe humans are just the pet alligators that God flushed down the toilet. CHUCK PALAHNIUK I wanted to write about the moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. When your... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Jack Palance was my distant uncle - that's the family gossip. Growing up, my family knew everyth... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is ou... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I'm always trying to reach a transcendent point, a romantic point, but reach it in a really unco... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My best advice for writers is: Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK With a book, you're guaranteed the audience has a certain skill level and that the audience has ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK If there had been zombies on the iceberg when the Titanic hit it, that would have made a much better... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home... it's your responsibili... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage. CHUCK PALAHNIUK We're making the same mistakes we made 1,000 years ago. So they must be the right ones. So relax... CHUCK PALAHNIUK What is the real purpose behind the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? They seem like gr... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My first four books, from 'Fight Club' to 'Choke,' dealt with personal identity issu... CHUCK PALAHNIUK In 2008, while the film version of my book 'Choke' was coming to market, my mother was diagn... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Mr. Olsen in the fifth grade made me want to be a writer. He said, 'Chuck, you do this really we... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Maybe it's better just living the way you figure life is when you're a kid. Before you get too smart... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Real smart begins when you quit quoting other people. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You hear the best stories from ordinary people. That sense of immediacy is more real to me than a lo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their dis... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Beginning with Santa Claus as a cognitive exercise, a child is encouraged to share the same idea of ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I say let me never be complete, I say may I never be content,I say deliver me from Swedish furniture... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You have to give up! you have to give up! You have to realize that someday you will die, U... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Big Brother fills us all with the same crap. My guess is he was clever the same way everybody thinks... CHUCK PALAHNIUK It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one. CHUCK PALAHNIUK I feel my heart ache, but I've forgotten what that feeling means. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Fathers. Mothers. With all their caring and attention. They will f--- you up, every time. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Find good in what the world says is evil. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Make me into anything, but just love me. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Give me lust, baby. Flash. Give me malice. Flash. Give me detached existentialis... CHUCK PALAHNIUK It's all mirror, mirror on the wall because beauty is power the same way money is power the same way... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I thought we were a real love relationship. I did. I was very invested in love, but it was just this... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Fuck me. I'm so tired of being me. Me beautiful. Me ugly. Blonde. Brunette. A million fucking fashio... CHUCK PALAHNIUK If I can't be beautiful, I want to be invisible. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Most times, it's just a lot easier not to let the world know what's wrong. CHUCK PALAHNIUK No matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed fee... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I think a lot of people saw 'Fight Club' and thought, 'Right, here's our next Che Gu... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My father worked for the railroad, and whenever a train crashed, we would go as a family and steal f... CHUCK PALAHNIUK We live and we die and anything else is just a delusion. CHUCK PALAHNIUK I would say any behavior that is not the status quo is interpreted as insanity, when, in fact, it mi... CHUCK PALAHNIUK People would ask me to autograph their bodies and then the next time I'd see them on tour they... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inven... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Every decade, we get a stunning collection of dynamic, heartbreaking short stories. In the past, tho... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Horror stories give us a way of exhausting our emotions around social issues, like a woman's rig... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up. CHUCK PALAHNIUK HELLO! Look at me. HELLO! I am so ZEN. This is BLOOD. This is NOTHING. Hello. Everything is nothing,... CHUCK PALAHNIUK With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels. CHUCK PALAHNIUK What I did was pour out about a gallon of Chanel Number Five and put a burning wedding invitation to... CHUCK PALAHNIUK If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, doesn't it just lie there and rot? CHUCK PALAHNIUK Without pain, without sacrifice we would have nothing. Like the first monkey shot into space. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Find out what you're afraid of and go live there. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The idea that population growth guarantees a better life - financially or otherwise - is a myth that... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I tell everyone I interact with what I'm working on and let them bring me anecdotes that illustr... CHUCK PALAHNIUK 'At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom' by Amy Hempel showed me the lean quality of prose. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you take my stuff apart, you'll find my choruses of repetitions are picked up almost verbatim... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Someday you will die, and until you know that, you're useless to me. CHUCK PALAHNIUK She's not wearing makeup so her face just looks like skin. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you knew that your life was merely a phase or short, short segment of your entire existence, how ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Language, she said, was just our way to explain away the wonder and glory of the world. To deconstru... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Sometimes the very best way to deal with unpleasant things is to depict them in ways that allow peop... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My only writing ritual is to shave my head bald between writing the first and second drafts of a boo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My personal theory is that younger audiences disdain books - not because those readers are dumber th... CHUCK PALAHNIUK He was the kind of boy any young girl should date while she's still able to recover. CHUCK PALAHNIUK My secret wish is right now to be romancing this dead girl. A dead girl. Any dead girl. I'm not what... CHUCK PALAHNIUK One thing I really envy about my friends who have kids is that as their children develop, they'r... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You have no idea what it is like to constantly disappoint people. You see it the moment you meet the... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Tyler and me at the edge of the roof, the gun in my mouth, I'm wondering how clean this gun is. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains. CHUCK PALAHNIUK I try to forget about the expectation that's out there and the audience listening for the next t... CHUCK PALAHNIUK In a way, a lot of my humor comes from presenting things that are dramatic or shocking and then peop... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The things you used to own, now they own you. CHUCK PALAHNIUK For me and my entire generation, we took on this kind of sarcastic, ironic, snarkiness because it se... CHUCK PALAHNIUK No matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood ed... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justifie... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Hysteria is only possible with an audience. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Game shows are designed to make us feel better about the random, useless facts that are all we have ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Don't do what you want. Do what you don't want. Do what you're trained not to want. Do the things th... CHUCK PALAHNIUK With a gun stuck in your mouth and the barrel of the gun between your teeth, you can only talk in vo... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The things you own end up owning you. CHUCK PALAHNIUK No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide. CHUCK PALAHNIUK We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depre... CHUCK PALAHNIUK We just had a near-life experience! CHUCK PALAHNIUK This is why I loved the support groups so much. If people thought you were dying, they gave you thei... CHUCK PALAHNIUK It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you could be God's worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose? CHUCK PALAHNIUK Being tired isn't the same as being rich, but most times it's close enough. CHUCK PALAHNIUK A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfec... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Masochism is a valuable job skill. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Someone bent on suicide won't have much sense of humor left. CHUCK PALAHNIUK Which is worse: Hell or nothing? CHUCK PALAHNIUK People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distrac... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sof... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Real discoveries come from chaos. CHUCK PALAHNIUK The future is just wasted on some people. CHUCK PALAHNIUK You can find fresh pain every time you discover what you pretty much already know. CHUCK PALAHNIUK If you dont know what you want, you end up with a lot you dont CHUCK PALAHNIUK Theres always the chance you could die right in the middle of your life story CHUCK PALAHNIUK Us. God's forgotten Science Fair project, left to grow mold. God's goldfish, ignored until we're for... CHUCK PALAHNIUK As if you cut open a rag doll with a sill name, and found inside:Real intestines, real lungs, a beat... CHUCK PALAHNIUK You are not special. Your are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I tell everybody, i'm tired of being jerked around, okay? so lets just not pretend. i don't have fuc... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom. without access to true chaos, we'... CHUCK PALAHNIUK