Quotessence
Home / Authors / Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsWantWorldKnowsWayStoriesThinkingWritingFight Club NovelLooksDiesInvisible MonstersGivingLifeMomentsFight Club BookIdeasFeelsFirsts

Famous Chuck Palahniuk Quotes

“You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need. We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.”

PeopleMenWantNeedsGivingHas BeensWarJobsSpiritualYoungSpiritHateCultureStrongClassOur LivesGenerationsCarRevolutionClothesMen And WomenAdvertisingChasingGreat DepressionGreat WarOur GenerationStrong ManFight Club NovelFight Club Book
Book:Fight Club: A Novel
Create image

“Listen up. Rant would tell people: ‘You’re a different human being to everybody you meet.’ Sometimes Rant said, ‘You only ever is in the eyes of other folks.’ If you were going to carve a quote on his grave, his favorite saying was: ‘The future you have tomorrow won’t be the same future you had yesterday.”

PeopleIfsHumansSaidDifferentSometimesEyeHuman BeingsTomorrowFolksYesterdayGravesRant
Book:Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey
Create image

“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.”

PeopleWorldYearsKindWholeLawLeftRoomsAdventureSafePropertyBoringSpeedWhole WorldBoredomOrganizedTested
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“This is why I loved the support groups so much, if people thought you were dying, they gave you their full attention. If this might be the last time they saw you, they really saw you. Everything else about their checkbook balance and radio songs and messy hair went out the window. You had their full attention. People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak. And when they spoke, they weren't just telling you a story. When the two of you talked, you were building something, and afterward you were both different than before.”

PeopleIfsTwoDifferentStoriesMightLastsSongTurnsSpeakWaitingAttentionSupportSawsGroupsDyingBuildingHairBalanceWindowRadioSpokesLast TimeMessyFight Club NovelBuilding SomethingSupport GroupsMessy Hair
Book:Fight Club: A Novel
Create image

“I know that when a supersexy older girl with hips and breasts and nice hair wants to take off your glasses and to paint you a smoky eye she's merely trying to enroll you in a beauty contest she's already won. It's a kind of slummy, condescending gesture, like when rich people ask poor people where they summer. To me, this smacks of a blatant, insensitive "let them eat cake" type of chauvinism.”

PeopleKnowsWantTryingKindEyeGirlAsksPoorRichNiceHairTypeSummerPaintGlassesHipsBreastsCakeGesturesContestsPoor PeopleRich PeopleSmackInsensitiveCondescendingChauvinismAlready WonBeauty Contest
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“Nobody wants to worship you if you have the same problems, the same bad breath and messy hair and hangnails, as a regular person. You have to be everything regular people aren’t. Where they fail, you have to go all the way. Be what people are too afraid to be. Become whom they admire. People shopping for a messiah want quality. Nobody is going to follow a loser. When it comes to choosing a savior, they won't settle for just a human being.”

PeopleIfsWayWantHumansPersonsProblemHuman BeingsQualityFailingHairWorshipBreathsAdmireSettlingLoserSaviorShoppingMessyMessiahWorship YouBad BreathMessy Hair
Book:Survivor: A Novel
Create image

“I often need physical gesture to balance dialogue. If I write in public, every time I need to know what a character is doing with his hand or foot, I can look up and study people and find compelling gestures that I can harvest. Writing in public gives you that access to a junkyard of details all around you.”

PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsGivingWritingLooksI CanCharacterHandsStudyFeetBalanceDetailsAccessDialogueLook UpGesturesCompellingHarvestJunkyard
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image