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

“Public taste changes and the aesthetic of a culture changes over time, so the idea isn't to appeal to the aesthetic of the moment and what people will like right now; the idea is to somehow keep yourself in the public memory so that as taste evolves it will eventually come to embrace your thing. So, it's about writing to be remembered rather than writing to be liked.”

PeopleWritingIdeasMomentsCultureMemoriesTasteRight NowEmbraceAppealsEvolveRememberedAestheticCulture ChangeChanges Over Time
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“I take pens and I write on the inside of my arm. When I'm with people and somebody says a really fascinating anecdote, or fact, or phrase, I'll write it on the inside of my arm. At the end of the day, I'll take the very best things that are on my arm and I'll copy them into a notebook that I always carry and only when the weather is absolutely terrible will I really key the very best of that notebook into the computer. At that point, it's all sort of censored twice - only the best things go from the arm to the book and only the best things go from the book to the computer.”

PeopleWritingBookEndsFactsArmsKeysTerribleComputerWeatherBest ThingsPhrasesThe End Of The DayFascinatingCopiesPensNotebookAnecdotesCensored
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“My writing has to excite people and depict or include their experiences. That's part of my process - to go out and interact with people. It's very much like an archival process. I understand that the Brothers Grimm would go out and get people talking so they could document folk tales that weren't being documented any other way. I try to offer a little bit of myself - some experience from my life that evokes stories in other people.”

PeopleWayWritingTryingLittlesStoriesBitsProcessTalkingBrotherOffersLittle BitFolksTalesDocumentsEvokePeople TalkingGrimmBrothers Grimm
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“As a child of the 1970s, I couldn't hold a narrative in my head; I was lucky if I could hold a joke in my head, because every time you turn on television or radio, it wipes the slate clean - at least in my case. After I gave up television, I found I could carry longer and longer stories or ideas in my head and put them together until I was carrying an entire short story. That's pretty much when I started writing.”

IfsWritingChildrenIdeasStoriesTogetherTurnsFoundCasesTelevisionLuckyJokesCleanRadioNarrativeIf I CouldShort StoryWipeTurn-onGave UpSlate
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“Alternating the thoughtful task of writing with the mindless work of laundry or dish washing will give you the breaks you need for new ideas and insights to occur. If you don't know what comes next in the story... clean your toilet. Change the bed sheets. For Christ sakes, dust the computer. A better idea will come.”

IfsKnowsNeedsGivingWritingIdeasStoriesNextChristBreakBedComputerTasksCleanSakeInsightDustThoughtfulNew IdeasDishesSheetsToiletsWashingLaundryMindlessBed Sheets
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“When I first started writing, there was no way I'd write a sex scene. That just seemed impossible. That's why in "Fight Club" all the sex happens off-screen. It's all just a noise on the other side of the wall or the ceiling. I just couldn't bring to write in a scene like that. So one of the challenges with "Choke" was I wanted to write sex scenes until I was really comfortable just writing them in a very mechanical way.”

WayWritingFirstsHappensWantedFightingSexSidesChallengesImpossibleWallSceneComfortableClubsScreensNoiseCeilingsChoke
Author:Chuck Palahniuk
Create image

“The worst part of writing fiction is the fear of wasting your life behind a keyboard. The idea that, dying, you'll realize you only lived on paper. Your only adventures were make-believe, and while the world fought and kissed, you sat in some dark room masturbating and making money.”

WorldWritingBelieveIdeasFearRealizingDarkRoomsBehindsFictionWorstDyingAdventurePaperMaking MoneySatKeyboardsMake BelieveWriting FictionDark Room
Book:Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
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