WIST Quotations

Palahniuk, Chuck -- “Those burnt tongue moments–Chuck Palahniuk in interview”, Interview by Andrew Lawless, Three Monkeys (May 2005)

Dave — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:08:57 +0000

I love being with people. But I need a script, a role, something that will help me overcome my fears of rejection and shame. Most religions and belief systems provide a blueprint for some sort of community. And the religion’s leaders model a way of being. For example, in my book Choke, a character enacts his own death and resurrection every night — as does the narrator in Fight Club. Here’s Jesus, allowing himself to look terrible in front of his peers. That’s the biggest purpose of religious gathering: permission to look terrible in public.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
“Those burnt tongue moments–Chuck Palahniuk in interview”, Interview by Andrew Lawless, Three Monkeys (May 2005)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Damned, ch. 1 (2011)

Dave — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:26:53 +0000

Trust me, the being-dead part is much easier than the dying part. If you can watch much television, then being dead will be a cinch. Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Damned, ch. 1 (2011)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Damned, ch. 1 (2011)

Dave — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 14:39:31 +0000

What makes earth feel like Hell is our expectation that it should feel like Heaven.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Damned, ch. 1 (2011)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary (2003)

Dave — Mon, 29 May 2017 18:54:23 +0000

It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary (2003)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary (2003)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2020 19:38:39 +0000

Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is just a thousand thousand smears of paint. Michelangelo’s David is just a million hits with a hammer. We’re all of us a million bits put together the right way.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary (2003)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary (2003)

Dave — Tue, 19 May 2020 15:52:01 +0000

What you don’t understand you can make mean anything.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary (2003)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary (2003)

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2020 14:35:15 +0000

An artist’s job is to make order out of chaos. You collect details, look for a pattern, and organize. You make sense out of senseless facts. You puzzle together bits of everything. You shuffle and reorganize. Collage. Montage. Assemble.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary (2003)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary [Grace] (2003)

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:19:32 +0000

We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary [Grace] (2003)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Fight Club ch. 13 (1996)

Dave — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:17:52 +0000

There are a lot of things we don’t want to know about the people we love.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Fight Club ch. 13 (1996)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Fight Club, ch. 2 (1997)

Dave — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 16:53:20 +0000

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Fight Club, ch. 2 (1997)
(Source)

The phrase also shows up later in the book, in ch. 24: "On a long enough time line, everyone's survival rate drops to zero."

In the 1999 movie adaptation (screenplay by Jim Uhls), the Narrator's line is "On a long enough time line the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Fight Club, ch. 3 (1996)

Dave — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 22:30:18 +0000

This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Fight Club, ch. 3 (1996)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Haunted (2005)

Dave — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 19:26:08 +0000

People in France have a phrase: “Spirit of the Stairway.” In French: Esprit d’Escalier. It means that moment when you find the answer but it’s too late. So you’re at a party and someone insults you. You have to say something. So, under pressure, with everybody watching, you say something lame. But the moment you leave the party …

As you start down the stairway, then — magic. You come up with the perfect thing you should’ve said. The perfect crippling put down.

That’s the Spirit of the Stairway.

The trouble is, even the French don’t have a phrase for the stupid things you actually do say under pressure. Those stupid, desperate things you actually think or do.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Haunted (2005)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Invisible Monsters (1999)

Dave — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:09:07 +0000

When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Invisible Monsters (1999)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Invisible Monsters, ch. 1 (1999)

Dave — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 15:45:36 +0000

The murderer, the victim, the witness, each of us thinks our role is the lead.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Invisible Monsters, ch. 1 (1999)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Lullaby, ch. 3 (2002)

Dave — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 16:44:35 +0000

Experts in ancient Greek culture say that people back then didn’t see their thoughts as belonging to them. When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love.

Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy them, but now they call this free will.

At least the ancient Greeks were being honest.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Lullaby, ch. 3 (2002)
(Source)

Much of this is repeated in ch. 39.

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, “Consolation Prizes” (2004)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:47:35 +0000

Everything is funnier in retrospect, funnier and prettier and cooler. You can laugh at anything from far enough away.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, “Consolation Prizes” (2004)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Closing remarks on an eClass forum, Barnes & Noble University (5 Dec 2004)

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 19:37:42 +0000

The first step — especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money — the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Closing remarks on an eClass forum, Barnes & Noble University (5 Dec 2004)