Quotes from Chuck Palahniuk

I always thought I'd write when I retired - when I turned 65.

My policy is to not read any reviews.

As we grow older I always think, why didn't I do more when I was young, why didn't I risk more?

Sometimes you do something, and you get screwed. Sometimes it's the things you don't do, and you get screwed.

As a lower-class kid, I was raised to think success would be owning stuff. Having that great job, too. Now I find my parents' dream was wrong. You never really own anything. And you're never really finished as a person.

I want my characters to really overuse their coping mechanisms to the point where they break down within 300 pages.

Sundays tend to be a day where just I do nothing but visit people. It's kind of like trick-or-treating.

I used to work as a volunteer in a hospice, but I don't have any nursing skills or cooking skills or anything, so I was what they call an escort. I would take people to the support groups every night, and I would have to sit sort of on the sidelines so I could take them back to hospice at the end of the meeting.

I take a lot of flak from the counter-establishment for selling out.

My books are all fantastically sentimental.

I will never write a sequel to anything that I will ever write.

A short story is something that you can hold in your mind. You can really analyze how the entire thing works, like a machine.

Being lonely is not a bad thing for a writer.

The folks who read my books are so passionate about each one of them that the people making my movies are more afraid of my readership than they are of me.

Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?

If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?

The most boring scenes are the scenes where a character is alone.

I've got two dogs; they're Boston terriers, and they're allowed everywhere.

Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.

If nothing else, there's comfort in recognising that no matter how much we fail and sin, death will limit our suffering.

The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage.

I wouldn't get nearly as many books written if I lived in New York. The Columbia Gorge is fantastic. When the sun shines, I just want to be outdoors.

Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it?

My first four books, from 'Fight Club' to 'Choke,' dealt with personal identity issues. The crises the narrators found themselves in were generated by themselves.