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

“The strength of film is its accessibility and immediacy. But the strength of books is that freedom to really depict anything you want because people are going to be reading it in private. So, I'm always trying to write with the immediacy and the constant motion of film but I'm also trying to write with the complete freedom of subject matter that books have.”

PeopleWantWritingTryingBookMatterFilmReadingSubjectsConstantAlways TryingSubject MatterAccessibilityImmediacyComplete Freedom
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“So often with beginning writers, the story that they want to start with is the most important story of their life - my molestation, my this, my horrible drug addiction - they want to tell that most important story, and they don't have the skills to tell it yet, so it ends up becoming a comedy. A powerful story told poorly becomes funny, it just makes people laugh behind their hands.”

PeopleWantImportantEndsStoriesHandsPowerfulBehindsLaughingComedyBecomingDrugSkillsAddictionHorribleMaking People LaughDrug AddictionDrug AddictMolestationBeginning Writers
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“You're a product of our language, and how our laws are and how we believe our God wants us. Every bitty molecule about you has already been thought out by some million people before you. Anything you can do is boring and old and perfectly okay. You're safe because you're so trapped inside your culture. Anything you can conceive of is fine because you can conceive of it. You can't imagine any way to escape. There's no way you can get out.The world is your cradle and your trap.”

PeopleWorldWayWantBelieveLawCultureLanguageCan DoMillionsImagineProductsFineSafeOkayBoringTrappedTrapsWant UCradleMolecules
Book:Invisible Monsters Remix
Create image

“Intellectual culture seems to separate high art from low art. Low art is horror or pornography or anything that has a physical component to it and engages the reader on a visceral level and evokes a strong sympathetic reaction. High art is people driving in Volvos and talking a lot. I just don't want to keep those things separate. I think you can use visceral physical experiences to illustrate larger ideas, whether they're emotional or spiritual. I'm trying to not exclude high and low art or separate them.”

PeopleThinkingWantTryingArtIdeasUseSeemsSpiritualCultureStrongLevelsTalkingEmotionalReaderHorrorIntellectualLowsArt IsDrivingReactionsPornographyComponentsSympatheticEvokeVisceralHighs And LowsHigh ArtVolvo
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“As young people we want something to slow us down and keep us trapped in one place long enough to look below the surface of the world. That disaster is a car crash or a war. To make us sit still. It can be getting cancer or getting pregnant. The important part is how it seems to catch us by surprise. That disaster stops us from living the life we'd planned as children - a life of constant dashing around.”

PeopleWorldWantLooksChildrenLongStillsImportantWarEnoughSeemsYoungCarDown AndConstantSurpriseCancerSurfaceDisasterLive LifePregnantTrappedCrashWant SomethingCar CrashBelow The SurfaceDashing
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“Inside me is the same desperate hope I have watching the ravenous dead and thinking, Oh please, oh please, oh please. The craving inside of me is to be clutched at by some dead girl. To put my ear to her chest and hear nothing. Even getting munched on by zombies beats the idea that I'm only flesh and blood, skin and bone. Demon or angel or evil spirit, I just need something to show itself. Ghoulie or ghosty or long-legged beastie, I just want my hand held.”

ThinkingWantNeedsLongIdeasShowsHandsSpiritGirlEvilBloodPleaseBeatsAngelSkinsEarsBonesFleshDemonDesperateChestsZombieCravingFlesh And BloodEvil SpiritsSkin And Bones
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“The old rule about how a thing of beauty is a joy forever, in my experience, even the most beauteous thing is only a joy for about three hours, tops. After that, she'll want to tell you all about her childhood traumas. Part of meeting these jail girls is it's so sweet to look at your watch and know she'll be behind bars in half an hour.”

KnowsWantLooksJoyGirlThreeHoursBehindsHalfWatchesForeverChildhoodSweetMeetingsTraumaBarsJailChildhood Trauma
Book:Choke: A Novel
Create image

“The only funny part about Colonial Dunsboro is maybe it's too authentic, but for all the wrong reasons. This whole crowd of losers and nutcases who hide out here because they can't make it in the real world, in real jobs — isn't this why we left England in the first place? To establish our own alternate reality. Weren't the Pilgrims pretty much the crackpots of their time? For sure, instead of just wanting to believe something different about God's love, the losers I work with want to find salvation through compulsive behaviors.”

WorldWantFirstsBelieveDifferentRealReasonWholeRealityJobsLeftBehaviorEnglandSalvationCrowdsLoserReal WorldGod's LovePilgrimReal JobsWrong ReasonsCrackpotsAlternate Realities
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“Daytime television, you can tell who’s watching by the three kinds of commercials. Either it’s clinics for drying out drunks. Or it’s law firms who want to settle injury suits. Or it’s schools offering mail-order vocational degrees to make you a bookkeeper. A private detective. Or a locksmith. If you’re watching daytime television, this is your new demographic. You’re a drunk. Or a cripple. Or an idiot.”

IfsWantKindSchoolLawOrderThreeTelevisionDegreesSuitsDrunkIdiotFirmSettlingInjuryMailOfferingDetectivesDemographicsDaytimeClinicCripplesLaw FirmsBookkeepers
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“No one wants to admit we're addicted to music. That's just not possible. No one's addicted to music and television and radio. We just need more of it, more channels, a larger screen, more volume. We can't bear to be without it, but no, nobody's addicted. We could turn it off anytime we wanted. I fit a window frame into a brick wall. With a little brush, the size for fingernail polish, I glue it. The window is the size of a fingernail. The glue smells like hair spray. The smell tastes like oranges and gasoline.”

WantNeedsLittlesWantedTurnsTelevisionHairWallBearsFitTasteWindowAddictionSizeRadioSmellScreensVolumeBrushesOrangeBricksPolishGlueSprayGasolineFingernailsBrick WallTelevision And RadioAddicted To Music
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“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

“Want to talk third-wave feminism, you could cite Ariel Levy and the idea that women have internalized male oppression. Going to spring break at Fort Lauderdale, getting drunk, and flashing your breasts isn't an act of personal empowerment. It's you, so fashioned and programmed by the construct of patriarchal society that you no longer know what's best for yourself. A damsel too dumb to even know she's in distress.”

KnowsWantIdeasBreakFeminismSpringEmpowermentThirdsMalesWaveOppressionDrunkDumbBreastsDistressConstructsFortsCitingArielGetting DrunkPatriarchal SocietyPersonal EmpowermentSpring Break
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“Every generation wants to be the last. Every generation hates the next trend in music they can't understand. We hate to give up those reins of our culture. To find our own music playing in elevators. The ballad for our revolution, turned into background music for a television commercial. To find our generation's clothes and hair suddenly retro.”

WantGivingLastsHateCultureNextGenerationsTelevisionHairRevolutionGiving UpClothesBackgroundsTrendsElevatorsOur GenerationReinsBalladsRetroBackground MusicTelevision Commercials
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image