Top 1089 Quotes & Sayings by Chuck Palahniuk - Page 2

My father worked for the railroad, and whenever a train crashed, we would go as a family and steal food from the boxcars. One year we stole a case of butterscotch pudding that was for export to Israel. It took us years to get through.

We're making the same mistakes we made 1,000 years ago. So they must be the right ones. So relax.

As we grow older I always think, why didn't I do more when I was young, why didn't I risk more?

Every woman is just a different kind of problem.

Few things in life seem more sexy than a banned book.

My stories always have these twisted happy endings, and the boy always gets the girl.

Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism.

That saying, about how you always kill the thing you love, well, it works both ways.

People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone.

It's funny how you never think about the women you've had. It's always the ones who get away that you can't forget.

Men are destroyed for being rebellious, and women destroy themselves by failing to be rebellious. Unless you can make that next jump to either getting along with people or resisting people, you are ultimately destroying yourself.

If I can't be beautiful, I want to be invisible.

I come from generations of farmers.

There are people out there who will not read books, but somehow they'll read my books.

Where would Jesus be if no one had written the gospels?

Sometimes you do something, and you get screwed. Sometimes it's the things you don't do, and you get screwed.

Any 'artist' makes a living by expressing what others can't - because they're unaware of their feelings, they're too afraid to express those feelings, or they lack the skills to communicate and be understood.

When working, my diet degrades to pizza three times a day, because I don't want to distract myself from anything.

I haven't shoplifted since I was 13.

No matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.

So much of 'Fight Club' was a rant against fathers.

Discovering the 'impossible' ending to a new book makes me sick with joy and relief.

What is the real purpose behind the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? They seem like greater steps toward faith and imagination, each with a payoff. Like cognitive training exercises.

In a way, a lot of my humor comes from presenting things that are dramatic or shocking and then people not having socially appropriate responses, having people denying the drama by failing to react to it, and that's a really classic form of humor.

The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage.

I'm always trying to reach a transcendent point, a romantic point, but reach it in a really unconventional way, a really profane way. To get to that romantic, touching, heartbreaking place, but through a lot of acts of profanity.

My private history in terms of people in my life who are dead is very easy to discuss. I don't feel those people can be threatened or intruded upon now. But I am enormously protective of the people who are currently in my life, my existing friends and family. That is where the curtain is drawn.

Sometimes the past seems too big for the present to hold.

A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.

I take a lot of flak from the counter-establishment for selling out.

Portland in particular is a cheap enough place to live that you can still develop your passion - painting, writing, music. People seem less status-conscious. Even wealthy people buy second-hand clothes and look a little bit homeless.

I think, in a way, I invented the term 'fight club' and that these things have always existed, but they never really had a label. Nobody had a language to apply to them. I created that language in two words and I've been paid a great deal of money for inventing two words and labeling something that has always been around.

If we all lived according to the teachings of Jesus Christ, life would be much simpler.

I love the power of words - no music or special effects - and I want to demonstrate that power.

My first four books, from 'Fight Club' to 'Choke,' dealt with personal identity issues. The crises the narrators found themselves in were generated by themselves.

Every time I write something, I think, this is the most offensive thing I will ever write. But no. I always surprise myself.

You can tell a more over-the-top incredible story if you use a nonfiction form.

You realize you have no control over how you're perceived.

I don't care what they do with my book so long as the flippin check clears.

At the age of 31, I realized, 'Oh my God, I may die like everyone else.'

It takes a lot to get people talking in airplanes. But once they start talking, you just can't shut them up.

I am the cause of all my upsets. I am my worst enemy.

I'm only confrontational with my friends.

When I first read the story 'Guts' in workshop - my fellow writers that I've been meeting with for almost 20 years - they laughed; they didn't have any kind of shock reaction.

I am enormously uncool. I've made a cottage industry of being uncool. And I'm fine with that.

Your birth is a mistake you'll spend your whole life trying to correct.

Every author has to eventually write a food book.

While writing, I tend to repeat the same song, endlessly, for thousands of times. This helps me ignore any lyrics, and helps create a consistent mood for each book.

Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that's usually how you end up crying?

I used to work as a volunteer in a hospice, but I don't have any nursing skills or cooking skills or anything, so I was what they call an escort. I would take people to the support groups every night, and I would have to sit sort of on the sidelines so I could take them back to hospice at the end of the meeting.

I have a lot of money.

The only thing I shy away from is non-consensual violence. I can't write a story where someone is a simple victim because it's boring.

The act of writing is a way of tricking yourself into revealing something that you would never consciously put into the world. Sometimes I'm shocked by the deeply personal things I've put into books without realizing it.

My best advice for writers is: Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poorly - all these make for great stories.

I try to tell a story the way someone would tell you a story in a bar, with the same kind of timing and pacing.

Only through destroying myself can I discover the greater power of my spirit.

Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it?

You hear the best stories from ordinary people. That sense of immediacy is more real to me than a lot of writerly, literary-type crafted stories. I want that immediacy when I read a novel.

In 'Diary,' the motto really is: 'Where Do You Get Your Inspiration?' It coaches us to be aware of our motives and not just be a reaction to the circumstances around us.

I used to work in a funeral home to feel good about myself, just the fact that I was breathing.