The same way a compact disk isn't responsible for what's recorded on it, that's how we are. You're about as free to act as a programmed computer. You're about as one-of-a-kind as a dollar bill. Chuck Palahniuk More Quotes by Chuck Palahniuk More Quotes From Chuck Palahniuk The same as real life, there is no happily ever after. Chuck Palahniuk ever-after real-life real The feeling is less like an ending than just another starting point. Chuck Palahniuk starting-point starting feelings It's okay to cry as long as you're faking it. Chuck Palahniuk faking-it cry long Trust me, the being-dead part is much easier than the dying part. If you can watch much television, then being dead will be a cinch. Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead. Chuck Palahniuk surfing dying practice I want to find something else, unknowable, some place that's not on the map. A real adventure. Chuck Palahniuk maps real adventure 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. Chuck Palahniuk dream jobs kids People had been working for so many years to make the world a safe, organized place. Nobody realized how boring it would become. With the whole world property-lined and speed-limited and zoned and taxed and regulated, with everyone tested and registered and adressed and recorded. Nobody had left much room for adventure, except maybe the kind you could buy. [...] The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom. Chuck Palahniuk law adventure years A short story is something that you can hold in your mind. You can really analyze how the entire thing works, like a machine Chuck Palahniuk machines stories mind Everyone thinks their whole life should be at least as much fun as masturbation. Chuck Palahniuk masturbation fun thinking To see how boring you really are, write a book about soap and cults, and the profits you make will be your only means of subsistence. Chuck Palahniuk writing mean book Inspiration needs disease, injury, madness. Chuck Palahniuk disease inspiration needs Imagine a plague you catch through your ears. Chuck Palahniuk plague imagine ears This is why I loved the support groups so much, if people thought you were dying, they gave you their full attention. If this might be the last time they saw you, they really saw you. Everything else about their checkbook balance and radio songs and messy hair went out the window. You had their full attention. People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak. And when they spoke, they weren't just telling you a story. When the two of you talked, you were building something, and afterward you were both different than before. Chuck Palahniuk hair song two She's so thin she's either dying or rich. Chuck Palahniuk rich dying People die', she says. 'People tear down houses. But furniture, fine, beautiful furniture, it just goes on and on, surviving everything.' She says, 'Armoires are the cockroaches of our culture. Chuck Palahniuk house beautiful people You ever wonder if Adam and Eve were just the puppies God dumped because they wouldn't house-train? Chuck Palahniuk puppy house wonder this is the upside of already being eternally damned Chuck Palahniuk There's still a thousand places I haven't gone to die. Chuck Palahniuk stills thousand gone We want you, not your money. As long as you're at fight club, you're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself. You're not your name. You're not your problems. You're not your age. You are not your hopes. You will not be saved. We are all going to die, someday. Chuck Palahniuk fighting names jobs So this is why I write. Because most times, your life isn’t funny the first time through. Most times, you can hardly stand it. That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. And writing makes you look back. Because since you can’t control life, at least you can control your version. Chuck Palahniuk retrospect writing looks