“If you start in the pit of despair with these profane, awful things, even a glimmer of hope or awareness is going to occur that's much brighter coming from this dark, awful beginning.”
Hope
“Maybe humans are just the pet alligators that God flushed down the toilet.”
GodAll Quotes by Chuck Palahniuk
“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”
Happiness“Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that's usually how you end up crying?”
Alone“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“Reality means you live until you die. The real truth is nobody wants reality.”
Truth“People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone.”
Alone“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“The most boring scenes are the scenes where a character is alone.”
Alone“The world of American politics is more contentious than it has ever been in my lifetime.”
Politics“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 have a lot of money.”
Money“I think in a way, you're doomed, once you can envision something. You're sort of doomed to make it happen. I've found that the moment I can envision leaving a relationship, that's usually the moment that the relationship starts to fall apart.”
Relationship“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 try to forget about the expectation that's out there and the audience listening for the next thing so that I'm not trying to please them. I've spent a huge amount of time not communicating with those folks and denying that they exist.”
Time“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.”
Funny“Maybe it's our sins that give God consolation when he finally has to give us cancer.”
God“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“Maybe humans are just the pet alligators that God flushed down the toilet.”
God“Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.”
Age“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