Chuck Palahniuk Choke Quotes & Sayings

When I first started writing, there was no way I'd write a sex scene. That just seemed impossible. That's why in "Fight Club" all the sex happens off-screen. It's all just a noise on the other side of the wall or the ceiling. I just couldn't bring to write in a scene like that. So one of the challenges with "Choke" was I wanted to write sex scenes until I was really comfortable just writing them in a very mechanical way. — Chuck Palahniuk

If you add your hot passion to the cold attitude of another person, it becomes lukewarm. Don't stand on the toes of dwarfs; stand on the shoulders of giants! — Israelmore Ayivor

Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream. — Chuck Palahniuk

Love, like fire, goes out without fuel. — Mikhail Lermontov

One cannot have too large a party. A large party secures its own amusement. — Jane Austen

And it's funny how when somebody saves you, the first thing you want to do is save other people. All other people. Everybody. The kid never knew the man's name. But he never forgot that smile. "Hero" isn't the first word, but it's the first word that comes to mind. — Chuck Palahniuk

Think not, O Mortal, vainly gay.
That Thou from Human Woes is free,
The bitter cup I drink today,
Tomorrow may be drunk by thee. — Jane Grey

My life had become a catastrophe. I had no idea how to turn it around. My band had broken up. I had almost lost my family. My whole life had devolved into a disaster. I believe that the police officer who stopped me at three a.m. that morning saved my life. — Trey Anastasio

I used rebellion as a way to hide out. We use criticism as a fake participation. — Chuck Palahniuk

In good old Colonial Dunsboro, masochism is a valuable job skill. It is in most jobs. — Chuck Palahniuk

Your Paris is more dangerous than my savage jungles, Paul," concluded Tarzan, — Edgar Rice Burroughs

To Mr. Jones, she said, imagine you're looking up at a blue sky, and imagine a tiny airplane skywriting the letter Z. Then let the wind erase the letter. Then imagine the plane writing the letter Y. Let the wind erase it. Then the letter X. Erase it. Then the letter W.
Let the wind erase it. — Chuck Palahniuk

The truth is, immigrants tend to be more American than people born here. — Chuck Palahniuk

When you're coming up with new material, it's not always gonna be good. The only way to learn is for it not to get a laugh, so you can adjust it and come back the next day to see if it's working right. Next time, you might get a different laugh. You're constantly rebuilding. — Kevin Hart

The old rule about how a thing of beauty is a joy forever, in my experience, even the most beauteous thing is only a joy for about three hours, tops. After that, she'll want to tell you all about her childhood traumas. Part of meeting these jail girls is it's so sweet to look at your watch and know she'll be behind bars in half an hour. — Chuck Palahniuk

The story is even Bill Wilson, a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, couldn't overcome the sex monkey on his back, and spent his sober life cheating on his wife and filled with guilt. — Chuck Palahniuk

We've taken the world apart but we have no idea what to do with the pieces. — Chuck Palahniuk

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. — Chuck Palahniuk

The girl's lover was gone, but his shadow was still there. — Chuck Palahniuk

We've spent so much time judging what other people created that we've created very, very little of our own. — Chuck Palahniuk

After you find out all the things that can go wrong, your life becomes less about living and more about waiting. — Chuck Palahniuk

When you're thinking about the rest of your life, you're never really thinking more than a couple years down the road. — Chuck Palahniuk

I feel my heart ache, but I've forgotten what that feeling means. — Chuck Palahniuk

By the time you're thirty, your worst enemy is yourself. — Chuck Palahniuk

The girl traced the outline of her lover's shadow so she would always have a record of how he looked ... — Chuck Palahniuk

You could choke on the silence. — Chuck Palahniuk

In 2008, while the film version of my book 'Choke' was coming to market, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. That meant that I had to appear in public to promote a comedy about a son trying to save his dying mother - the plot of Choke - while privately I was caring for my own dying mother. It was torture. — Chuck Palahniuk

The magic of sex is it's acquisition without the burden of possession. No matter how many women you take home, there's never a storage problem. — Chuck Palahniuk

So the last night the girl and her lover would be together, the girl would bring the lamp and set it so it threw the lover's shadow to the wall!!!!! — Chuck Palahniuk

I am NOT an anarchist. Never have been, never will be. Just because Crimethinc put out two of my poetry books, I am labeled everywhere as an anarchist poet. I am a poet, yes. Not an anarchist. I have no formulated political philosophy other than a general feeling of disgust for the majority of the human race. — Raegan Butcher

I'm always looking for context in which people tell stories. In "Fight Club" it's these support groups for dying people, and then in "Choke" it's 12-step recovery groups. In one novel it's artists' colonies, in another novel it's a diary form that submariners' wives typically keep so that when their husband comes back from serving on a submarine they have an accounting of their spouse's time. So I'm always looking for, number one, a non-fiction context - because you can tell a more outrageous story if you use a non-fiction form. — Chuck Palahniuk

The only thing that separates us from the animals ... is we have pornography. — Chuck Palahniuk

There is a social contract in "Fight Club" and in "Choke" where the protagonist has deceived a whole bunch of people. In "Choke" it's all of these people who think that they've saved his life, and really care about him because they've embraced him and they've been his saviors. In "Fight Club" it's all of these people who are dying of various diseases, and they thought that Edward Norton was also dying so they allowed him really strong pent-up emotions. — Chuck Palahniuk

Sixty-five percent of Americans say they know nothing about either Muhammad or Islam. — Deepak Chopra