“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character, would you slow down? Or speed up?”
Change
“Reality means you live until you die. The real truth is nobody wants reality.”
TruthAll Quotes by Chuck Palahniuk
“Maybe it's our sins that give God consolation when he finally has to give us cancer.”
God“Only through destroying myself can I discover the greater power of my spirit.”
Power“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.”
Romantic“People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone.”
Alone“My goal is more to be remembered. They'll remember this thing and like it in the future. The trick is to stay remembered long enough for that to happen.”
Future“I believe in something. But I don't believe that anything can hold a grudge for long enough to condemn its creation to eternal punishment. Nobody can hold a grudge that long, even God.”
God“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.”
Great“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.”
Best“Minimalism seems closest to the sophisticated storytelling of movies. Movies have really educated contemporary audiences to be the most intelligent, sophisticated audiences in history. We don't any longer need to have the relationship between one scene and the next explained. We will figure it out ourselves.”
History“I really love idiot, enlightened characters - these characters who fail to engage with the drama of their immediate circumstances they fail to be reactive and enrolled by drama as it happens around them.”
Love“You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake... This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.”
Time“I wanted to write about the moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. When your whole life breaks down. That's the moment when you have to somehow choose what your life is going to be about.”
Life“If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?”
Time“When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?”
Future“Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?”
Happiness“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?”
Freedom“Some of the best ideas I get seem to happen when I'm doing mindless manual labor or exercise. I'm not sure how that happens, but it leaves me free for remarkable ideas to occur.”
Best“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”
Happiness“Reality means you live until you die. The real truth is nobody wants reality.”
Truth