Quotes by Chuck Palahniuk

Parenthood is the opiate of the masses.

Its okay if there isnt a God anymore, but I still want to respect something. I dont want to be the center of my own universe,

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone Ive ever known.

You are not your job, youre not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. Youre not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the world.

We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe its our job to invent something better.

Whats burning down is a re-creation of a period revival house patterned after a copy of a copy of a copy of a mock Tudor big manor house. Its a hundred generations removed from anything original, but the truth is arent we all?

Im an invisible monster. Im incapable of loving anybody. You dont know which is worse.

Most times, its just a lot easier not to let the world know whats wrong.

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.

The idea that I cant share my problems with other people makes me not give a shit about their problems.

You only ask people about themselves so you can tell them about yourself.

Anybodys true nature is bullshit. There is no human soul. Emotion is bullshit. Love is bullshit.

Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?

Disaster is a natural part of my evolution toward tragedy and dissolution.

With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.

A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart.

Some stories, you use up. Others use you up.

You digest and absorb your life by turning it into stories, he says, the same way this theater seems to digest people. With one hand, he points to a carpet stain, this dark stain sticky and growing mold, branched with arms and legs.Other events—the ones you can’t digest—they poison you. Those worst parts of your life, those moments you can’t talk about, they rot you from the inside out. Until you’re Cassandra’s wet shadow on the ground. Sunk in your own yellow protein mud.But the stories that you can digest, that you can tell—you can take control of those past moments. You can shape them, craft them. Master them. And use them to your own good. Those are stories as important as food. Those are stories you can use to make people laugh or cry or sick. Or scared. To make people feel the way you felt. To help exhaust that past moment for them and for you. Until that moment is dead.Consumed. Digested. Absorbed.

The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close up.

As human beings, our first commandment is:Something needs to happen