Chuck Palahniuk
The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage.
All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.
If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?
I just don't want to die without a few scars.
When I first read the story 'Guts' in workshop - my fellow writers that I've been meeting with for almost 20 years - they laughed; they didn't have any kind of shock reaction.
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.
Movie brawls tend to be bloodless and quick.
The bright future is that readers are accepting more varied forms of stories.
For me and my entire generation, we took on this kind of sarcastic, ironic, snarkiness because it seemed the most extreme reaction to the earnestness of hippies.
We don't have friends, so we watch 'Friends' on TV.
My parents divorced about the same time the movie 'The Parent Trap' came out, about two twins at camp who scheme to get their parents back together. I had that same fantasy.
I live by fallacy. 'If I get enough nice Ikea furniture, I'll be a grown-up.' Then I catch myself. Or, 'If I get off by myself, away from the stress of modern life, I'll be OK.' Then I catch myself.
Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism.
Few things in life seem more sexy than a banned book.
I like to get people moving and jumping. I think it's good to add more emotion and chaos.
More and more, it feels like I'm doing a really bad impersonation of myself.
Every author has to eventually write a food book.
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.
I don't do much more than organise other people's ideas and insights and thoughts, and sort of harvest them, and inventory them and present them.
My characters tend to be more dynamic because they're reaching that point in their lives where their old way of being is breaking down. They're conflicted by the idea that they don't know what's next. You could call it Kierkegaard's leap of faith, when you get tired of sort of reinventing yourself on a very superficial level.
I get a lot of letters from women who insist that 'Fight Club' is not just a guy thing. They insist that women have the same rage and need the same outlet.
I would say any behavior that is not the status quo is interpreted as insanity, when, in fact, it might actually be enlightenment. Insanity is sorta in the eye of the beholder.
When I visit my brother in South Africa, I order things I've only seen in zoos. Little deers and kudu, all the mammals you would never think of eating.
The best thing about getting a flu shot is that you never again need to wash your hands. That's how I see it.
Where would Jesus be if no one had written the gospels?
You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake... This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
The first step to eternal life is you have to die.
Being lonely is not a bad thing for a writer.
Until you find something to fight for, you settle for something to fight against.Collection: Inspirational
The most boring thing in the entire world is nudity. The second most boring thing is honesty.Collection: Honesty
We'll never be as young as we are tonight.Collection: Inspiring
Nevertheless, if you ask me, most people have children just as their own enthusiasm about life begins to wane. A child allows us to revisit the excitement we once felt about, well... everything. A generation later, our grandkids bump up our enthusiasm yet again. Reproducing is a kind of booster shot to keep us loving life.Collection: Children
First your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life.Collection: Giving
Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer.Collection: Self
Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.Collection: Inspiring
People don't listen, they just wait for their turn to talk.Collection: People
When you understand, that what you're telling is just a story. It isn't happening anymore. When you realize the story you're telling is just words, when you can just crumble up and throw your past in the trashcan, then we'll figure out who you're going to be.Collection: Past
Your past is just a story. And once you realize this it has no power over you.Collection: Life
You're always haunted by the idea you're wasting your life.Collection: Ideas
Writing is like sex, if it's difficult you're not doing it right.Collection: Sex
If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?Collection: Feels
What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.Collection: Life
You gain power by pretending to be weak.Collection: Power
Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep...wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have you....The one who turns to his friends and says, 'that's her.'Collection: Beautiful
The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.Collection: Love
People had been working for so many years to make the world a safe, organized place. Nobody realized how boring it would become. With the whole world property-lined and speed-limited and zoned and taxed and regulated, with everyone tested and registered and adressed and recorded. Nobody had left much room for adventure, except maybe the kind you could buy. [...] The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom.Collection: Adventure
Now is the autumn of our ennui.Collection: Autumn
At some point, your memories, your stories, your adventures, will be the only things you'll have left.Collection: Memories
Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete.Collection: Perfect