Quotes from Chuck Palahniuk

I'm always trying to reach a transcendent point, a romantic point, but reach it in a really unconventional way, a really profane way. To get to that romantic, touching, heartbreaking place, but through a lot of acts of profanity.

There will always be an underground.

What we don't understand we can make mean anything.

Any 'artist' makes a living by expressing what others can't - because they're unaware of their feelings, they're too afraid to express those feelings, or they lack the skills to communicate and be understood.

One thing I really envy about my friends who have kids is that as their children develop, they're able to revisit their own developmental stages and recognise themselves and undo a lot of things they decided.

The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says.

My books didn't fit a marketing niche.

You have no idea what it is like to constantly disappoint people. You see it the moment you meet them. You see in their eyes that they expected something so entirely different, and here they are meeting... you.

We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poorly -- all these make for great stories.

We'll be remembered more for what we destroy than what we create.

No matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.

You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it's just teeth.

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

If you don't know what you want, the doorman said, you end up with a lot you don't.

All the effort in the world won't matter if you're not inspired.

I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.

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

The only difference between a suicide and a martyrdom really is the amount of press coverage.

I admire addicts. In a world where everybody is waiting for some blind, random disaster or some sudden disease, the addict has the comfort of knowing what will most likely wait for him down the road. He's taken some control over his ultimate fate, and his addiction keeps the cause of his death from being a total surprise.

People fall so in love with their pain, they can't leave it behind. The same as the stories they tell. We trap ourselves.

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

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