Chuck Palahniuk

"How sweet! You still believe in death... thats just so... quaint. Well, sorry to pop your death bubble, but theres no such thing. So make the best of things. Any real belief in death is just wishful thinking. Dont waste good drugs on killing yourself. Share them with friends and have a party. Or send them to me."

"Why have I sold out? You think Im supposed to grow old, beating some trite old protest drum that people dont hear anymore? Please; protest is now just a backdrop for a Diesel clothing ad in a slick fashion magazine. My goal is to create a metaphor that changes our reality by charming people into considering their world in a different way. Its time — for me, at least — to be clever and seduce people by entertaining them. Ill never be heard if Im always ranting and griping."

"I think theyve always gone on. Ive gotten some irate letters from oldsters saying "We did this in the 1930s. You didnt invent anything." And Im like, "Gramps, you should have put a name on it and sold it, because that’s all I did."

"The first step — especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money — the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art."

"The problem with every story is you tell it after the fact. Every play-by-play description on the radio, the home runs and strikeouts, even thats delayed a few minutes. Even live television is postponed a couple seconds. Even Sound and light can only go so fast."

"You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound You dont win with a lot of treble. This isnt about quality. Its about volume. This isnt about music. This is about winning. You stomp the competition with the bass line. You rattle windows. You drop the melody line, and shout the lyrics. You put in foul language and come down hard on each cussword. You dominate. This is really about power."

"We come from a generation of people who need their TV or stereo playing all the time. These people so scared of silence. These soundaholics, these quietophobics."

"Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isnt watching. Hes singing and dancing. Hes pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brothers busy holding your attention every moment youre awake. Hes making sure youre always distracted. Hes making sure youre fully absorbed. Hes making sure your imagination withers. Until its as useful as your appendix. Hes making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, its worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about whats in your mind. With everyones imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world."

"Thats how a scary story works. It echoes some ancient fear. It recreates some forgotten terror. Something wed like to think were grown beyond. But it can still scare us to tears. Its something youd hoped was healed."

"The journalist researches a story. The novelist imagines it. What’s funny is, you’d be amazed at the amount of time a novelist has to spend with people in order to create this single lonely voice. This seemingly isolated world. It’s hard to call any of my novels “fiction.”"

"Our footsteps echo against the concrete floor. The steel roof hums with rain. And she says, Dont you feel, somehow, buried in history?"

"I havent had a TV in 10 years, and I really dont miss it. Cause its always so much more fun to be with people than it ever was to be with a television."