Chuck Palahniuk
Written in stolen moments under truck chassis and on park benches to a soundtrack of The Downward Spiral and Pablo Honey, Fight Club came into existence. The adaptation of Fight Club was a flop at the box office, but achieved cult status on DVD. The film’s popularity drove sales of the novel. Chuck put out two novels in 1999, Survivor and Invisible Monsters. Choke, published in 2001, became Chuck’s first New York Times bestseller. Chuck’s work has always been infused with personal experience, and his next novel, Lullaby, was no exception. Chuck credits writing Lullaby with helping him cope with the tragic death of his father. Diary and the non-fiction guide to Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, were released in 2003. While on the road in support of Diary, Chuck began reading a short story entitled 'Guts,' which would eventually become part of the novel Haunted.
In the years that followed, he continued to write, publishing the bestselling Rant, Snuff, Pygmy, Tell-All, a 'remix' of Invisible Monsters, Damned, and most recently, Doomed.
Chuck also enjoys giving back to his fans, and teaching the art of storytelling has been an important part of that. In 2004, Chuck began submitting essays to ChuckPalahniuk.net on the craft of writing. These were 'How To' pieces, straight out of Chuck's personal bag of tricks, based on the tenants of minimalism he learned from Tom Spanbauer. Every month, a “Homework Assignment” would accompany the lesson, so Workshop members could apply what they had learned. (all 36 of these essays can currently be found on The Cult's sister-site, LitReactor.com).
Then, in 2009, Chuck increased his involvement by committing to read and review a selection of fan-written stories each month. The best stories are currently set to be published in Burnt Tongues, a forthcoming anthology, with an introduction written by Chuck himself.
His next novel, Beautiful You, is due out in October 2014.
“Every planet will take on the corporate identity of whoever rapes it first.”
“Am I sleeping? Have I slept at all? This is insomnia.”
“You love me. You ignore me. You save my life, then you cook my mother into soap.”
“These are Tyler's words coming out of my mouth. I am Tyler's mouth. I am Tyler's hands.”
“We have to show these men and women freedom by enslaving them, and show them courage by frightening them.”
“You had a near life experience.”
“I am nothing, and not even that.”
“The amazing miracle of death, when one second you're walking and talking, and the next second you're an object.”
“Believe in me and you shall die, forever.”
“After fight club you're so relaxed, you just cannot care.”
“Disaster is a natural part of my evolution toward tragedy and dissolution.”
“Everyone has something wrong. And for a while, her heart just sort of flat lined.”
“If she was going to die, Marla didn't want to know about it.”
“There are a lot of things we don't want to know about the people we love.”
“Tyler's words coming out of my mouth. I used to be such a nice person.”
“Someday you will die, and until you know that, you're useless to me.”
“Put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains.”
“Ever since college, I make friends. They get married. I lose friends.”
“Because I can't hit bottom, I can't be saved.”
“Every evening, I died, and every evening, I was born.”
“No matter how much you love someone, you still want to have you own way.”
“After long enough, everyone in the world will be you enemy.”
“The voice says, maybe you don't go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don't do. The things you don't finish.”
“Si no sabes lo que quieres —continuó el portero—, terminas teniendo un montón de cosas que no necesitas.”
“Se pueden repetir los mismos milagros una y otra vez mientras nadie recuerde la última vez”
“If you never have sex you never gain a sense of power. You never gain a voice or an identity of your own. Sex is the act that separates us from our parents. Children from adults. It's by having sex that adolescents first rebel.And if you never have sex, you never grow beyond everything else your parents taught you. If you never break the rule against sex, you won't break any other rule.”
“Es muy duro olvidar el dolor, pero es más duro todavía recordar la dulzura.La felicidad no nos deja cicatrices. Apenas aprendemos nada de la paz.”
“The wild daisies and Indian paintbrush whizzing past are just the genitals of a different life form”
“Si no entiendes algo, puedes hacer que signifique cualquier cosa.”
“Unless we have that moment of chaos, followed by the emotional release of realization, nothing will be remembered.”
“Or maybe...just maybe this whole process is our training wheels towards something bigger. If we can reflect and know our lives, we might stay awake and shape our futures.”
“Help me give up my addiction to Hope.”
“Hope is something really tough and tenacious you have to give up. It’s an addiction to break.”
“They placed their bets with such self righteous bravado, but I’m the one who lost.”
“Nevertheless, here it is: my Hideous Admission. I’ll fess up and come clean. I’m out of the closet. I’m dead. Now don’t hold it against me.”
“Women are already born so far ahead ability-wise. The day men can give birth, that's when we can start talking about equal rights.”
“Never, ever say the dildo accidentally turned itself on.”
“Biz televizyon izleyerek, milyonerler, sinema tanrıları, rock yıldızları olacağımıza inanarak büyüdük ama olamayacağız...Hepimiz heba oluyoruz...Bütün bir nesil benzin pompalıyor, garsonluk yapıyor ya da beyaz yakalı köle olmuş...Reklamlar yüzünden araba ve kıyafet peşindeyiz...Nefret ettiğimiz işlerde çalışıyor, gereksiz şeyler alıyoruz... Bizler tarihin ortanca çocuklarıyız...Bir amacımız yok; ne büyük savaş ne de büyük bir buhran yaşadık...Bizim savaşımız ruhani savaş... Ve bunalımımız kendi hayatlarımız...”
“You’re a different human being to everybody you meet.”
“It's funny how you never think about the women you've had. It's always the ones who get away that you can't forget.”
“Seek midday nourishment. Visit memorial acclaimed war hero Colonel Sanders.”
“Either a species learns to control its own population, or something like disease, famine, war, will take care of the issue.”
“Centuries ago, sailors on long voyages used to leave a pair of pigs on every deserted island. Or they'd leave a pair of goats. Either way, on any future visit, the island would be a source of meat. These islands, they were pristine. These were home to breeds of birds with no natural predators. Breeds of birds that lived nowhere else on earth. The plants there, without enemies they evolved without thorns or poisons. Without predators and enemies, these islands, they were paradise. The sailors, the next time they visited these islands, the only things still there would be herds of goats or pigs. Oyster is telling this story. The sailors called this "seeding meat." Oyster says, "Does this remind you of anything? Maybe the ol' Adam and Eve story?" Looking out the car window, he says, "You ever wonder when God's coming back with a lot of barbecue sauce?”
“According to Plato, we don't learn anything. Our soul has lived so many lives that we know everything. Teachers and education can only remind us of what we already know.”
“Maybe this is why Misty loved him. Loved you. Because you believed in her so much more than she did. You expected more from her than she did from herself.”
“No shit, there's worse ways to be dead than dying.”
“Every masterpiece is just dirt and ash put together in some perfect way.”
“Which is worse, Hell or nothing? Only if we're caught and punished can we be saved.”
“Some little part of themselves for someone in the future to discover. Maybe a thought. We were here. We built this. A reminder.”
“Find value in what we've been taught is worthless.”