Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk

38 quotes

Few American novelists have been quoted as widely as Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962), whose insights reach well beyond their original context. Chuck Palahniuk's observations on Time are as sharp as their thoughts on God, revealing genuine breadth of mind. With 54 quotes in our library, Chuck Palahniuk is among the most well-represented voices here, with thoughts on Time, God, Best, Relationship, and Great. One standout: "When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?"

“Every time I write something, I think, this is the most offensive thing I will ever write. But no. I always surprise myself.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Time

All Quotes by Chuck Palahniuk

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Hope

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Best

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Funny

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Romantic

“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Happiness

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Life

“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

God

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

— Chuck Palahniuk

Truth

“Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home... it's your responsibility to love it, or change it.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Change

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

— Chuck Palahniuk

Alone

“I used to work in a funeral home to feel good about myself, just the fact that I was breathing.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Good

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Love

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

History

“If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Time

“I have a lot of money.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Money

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Age

“The world of American politics is more contentious than it has ever been in my lifetime.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Politics

“Maybe it's our sins that give God consolation when he finally has to give us cancer.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

God

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Best

“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.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Great