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Chuck Palahniuk Quotes - Page 7

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When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves.

When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves.

Chuck Palahniuk
Hate, Monsters, Self Loathing
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Invisible Monsters: A Novel”, p.104, W. W. Norton & Company

It only takes one mistake,' the Dan Banyan guy says, 'and nothing else you ever do will matter.' With his empty hand, he takes one of my hands. His fingers feel hot, fever-hot, and pounding with his heartbeats. He turns my hand palm-up saying, 'No matter how hard you work or how smart you become, you'll always be known for that one poor choice.' He sets the blue pill on my palm, saying, 'Do that one wrong thing- and you'll be dead for the rest of your life.

Chuck Palahniuk
Mistake, Smart, Blue

What do you do when your entire identity is destroyed in an instant? How do you cope when your whole life story turns out to bw wrong?

Chuck Palahniuk
Identity, Stories, Life Story
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Snuff”, p.25, Random House

Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream.

Chuck Palahniuk
Dream, Smart, Ambition
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Choke”, p.257, Random House

You see, life only turns out good or bad for only a little bit. And then it turns out some other way.

Chuck Palahniuk
Littles, Way, Turns
"Rant". Book by Chuck Palahniuk, May 1, 2007.

If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?

Chuck Palahniuk
Worst Enemy, Nihilism, Fight Club Novel
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Fight Club”, p.141, Random House

If the living are haunted by the dead, then the dead are haunted by their own mistakes.

Chuck Palahniuk
Mistake, Haunted Houses, Ifs
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Damned”, p.102, Random House

You cannot be the person they know and the great, glorious person you want to become. Not at the same time.

Chuck Palahniuk
Want, Glorious, Persons
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Haunted”, p.7, Random House

There are only patterns. Patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns, patterns hidden by patterns, patterns within patterns.

Chuck Palahniuk
Patterns
Chuck Palahniuk (1999). “Survivor: A Novel”, Anchor

Ideas come at any moment -- except when you demand them. Most ideas come while I'm physically active, at the gym, with friends, gardening, so I always carry pen and paper. My first draft is always written in longhand. But once the first dozen chapters, more like short stories, are written, then momentum builds until I can't leave the project until it's done.

Chuck Palahniuk
Ideas, Gardening, Momentum

Give me lust, baby. Flash. Give me malice. Flash. Give me detached existentialist ennui. Flash. Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism. Flash.

Chuck Palahniuk
Baby, Coping Mechanisms, Giving
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Invisible Monsters: A Novel”, p.13, W. W. Norton & Company

Intellectual culture seems to separate high art from low art. Low art is horror or pornography or anything that has a physical component to it and engages the reader on a visceral level and evokes a strong sympathetic reaction. High art is people driving in Volvos and talking a lot. I just don't want to keep those things separate. I think you can use visceral physical experiences to illustrate larger ideas, whether they're emotional or spiritual. I'm trying to not exclude high and low art or separate them.

Chuck Palahniuk
Spiritual, Strong, Art
Source: www.writersdigest.com

No, none of us seem so very real. We're only supporting characters in the lives of each other. Any real truth, any precious fact will always be lost in a mountain of shattered make-believe.

Chuck Palahniuk
Real, Believe, Character

The world will always punish the few people with special talents the rest of us don’t recognize as real.

Chuck Palahniuk
Real, People, Special
"Haunted". Book by Chuck Palahniuk, 2005.

It's only in drugs or death we'll see anything new, and death is just too controlling.

Chuck Palahniuk
Death, Drug
Chuck Palahniuk (1999). “Survivor: A Novel”, Anchor

Nothing feels as awful as pouring your heart out to some talk therapist, then realizing this so-called professional is actually vastly stupid and you've just professed your most secret secrets to some goon who's wearing one brown sock and one blue sock.

Chuck Palahniuk
Stupid, Heart, Blue
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Damned”, p.135, Random House

Maybe the only thing each of us can see is our own shadow. Carl Jung called this his shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead we see only aspects of ourselves that fall over them. Shadows. Projections. Our associations. The same way old painters would sit in a tiny dark room and trace the image of what stood outside a tiny window, in the bright sunlight. The camera obscura. Not the exact image, but everything reversed or upside down.

Chuck Palahniuk
Fall, Dark, Shadow Work

What I'm always trying to do with every book is to recreate the effect of the stories we heard as children in front of campfires and fireplaces - the ghost stories that engaged us.

Chuck Palahniuk
Children, Book, Ghost Stories

People didn't know who I was or why I was there, so they started inventing stories about me. I was a registered sex offender and I'd just been released from prison and was being forced to do community-service work. I was a murderer, an arsonist - all these horrific things had been projected on me because no one knew what to make of this white guy who showed up and made toast at 5 o'clock every morning.

Chuck Palahniuk
Morning, Sex, White
Source: content.time.com

Some of us are lucky enough to fall in love once or twice but the luckiest of us are those who find that someone they simply can't live without and have the pleasure of falling in love with them day in and day out for the rest of their lives. Relationships aren't about simply falling in love once and being done with it, they're about loving someone until the end of your days and growing that love endlessly.

Chuck Palahniuk
Falling In Love, Romantic Love, Loving Someone

The greatest weapon any warrior can carry into battle is absolute certainty of her eternal soul.

Chuck Palahniuk
Warrior, Soul, Battle

You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be.

Chuck Palahniuk
Life, Death, Suicide
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Survivor: A Novel”, p.139, W. W. Norton & Company

Reality means you live until you die. The real truth is nobody wants reality.

Chuck Palahniuk
Death, Truth, Real
Chuck Palahniuk (1999). “Survivor: A Novel”, Anchor

The liberator who destroys my property is fighting to save my spirit. The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free.

Chuck Palahniuk
Teacher, Fighting, Path
Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Fight Club”, p.110, Random House

I'm never going to have to work. None of my descendants are ever going to have to work; this is going to make me so much money. It was such a letdown when I realized that wasn't my invention.

Chuck Palahniuk
Invention, Letdowns, I Realized
Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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