Chuck Palahniuk quotes

„Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted. He’s making sure you’re fully absorbed.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 3
Context: Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. He's making sure your imagination withers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.

„We'll never be as young as we are tonight.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Rant

Source: Rant

„Until you find something to fight for, you settle for something to fight against.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk

„We love drama. We love conflict. We need a devil or we'll create one.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Haunted (2005), Chapter 20, Cassandra, Another story by Mrs. Clarke
Source: Invisible Monsters

„Yes, terrible things happen, but sometimes those terrible things- they save you.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Haunted

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Variant: Yes, terrible things happen, but sometimes those terrible things- they save you.
Source: Haunted (2005), Chapter 11, Ritual

„I'm not straight, and I'm not gay. I'm not bisexual. I want out of the labels. I don't want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that's not on the map. A real adventure.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Variant: I want out of the labels. I don't want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that's not on the map. A real adventure.'
A spinx. A mystery. A blank. Unknown. Undefined.
Source: Invisible Monsters

„Don't do what you want. Do what you don't want. Do what you're trained not to want. Do the things that scare you the most.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

„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, book Diary

Source: Diary

„The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

„All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

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

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Diary

Source: Diary

„What I want is to be needed. What I need is to be indispensable to somebody. Who I need is somebody that will eat up all my free time, my ego, my attention. Somebody addicted to me. A mutual addiction.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Choke

Source: Choke

„The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

„You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Survivor

Source: Survivor

„You know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well, it works both ways.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

„When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

„You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

„If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character… Would you slow down? Or speed up?“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

„A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?"
"Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living.“

—  Chuck Palahniuk, book Survivor

Source: Survivor