Quotes by Chuck Palahniuk

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

The most boring scenes are the scenes where a character is alone.

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

My only writing ritual is to shave my head bald between writing the first and second drafts of a book. If I can throw away all my hair, then I have the freedom to trash any part of the book on the next rewrite.

When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?

“By the time youre thirty, your worst enemy is yourself.”

“After long enough, everyone in the world will be you enemy.”

“Honest is how I want to look. The truth doesnt glitter and shine.”

“Music is crucial. Beyond no way can I overstress this fact. Lets say youre southbound on the interstate, cruising alone in the middle lane, listening to AM radio. Up alongside comes a tractor trailer of logs or concrete pipe, a tie-down strap breaks, and the load dumps on top of your little sheetmetal ride. Crushed under a world of concrete, youre sandwiched like so much meat salad between layers of steel and glass. In that last, fast flutter of your eyelids, you looking down that long tunnel toward the bright God Light and your dead grandma walking up to hug you--do you want to be hearing another radio commercial for a mega, clearance, closeout, blow-out liquidation car-stereo sale?”

“The truth is, immigrants tend to be more American than people born here.”

“You can tell people the truth, but theyll never believe you until the event. In the meantime, the truth will just piss them off and get you in a lot of trouble.”

“Maybe the truth is I really want to like you instead.”

“Its exhausting, the energy it takes to unknow a truth.”

“Because supposedly those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”

“some soap opera, you know, real people pretending to be fake people with made-up problems being watched by real people to forget their real problems.”

“The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up. The shortcut to closing a door is to bury yourself in the details. This is how we must look to God. As if everythings just fine.”

“Our purest form of joy comes when people we envy get hurt. That most genuine form of joy.”

“Theres still a thousand places I havent gone to die.”

“Make me into anything, but just love me.”

“I dont want to die without any scars.”