Quotable Quotes: Chuck Palahniuk
by Miki Saxon
Chuck Palahniuk has an interesting, if cynical, view of life; in fact, much of it is too cynical for my taste, but not all.
Palahniuk said, “Everybody here thinks the whole story is about them. Definitely that goes for everybody in the world.” That attitude makes navigating one’s own existence almost surreal, especially if you are of that small minority (like me) that doesn’t see themselves as the center of the universe .
He also offers a good explanation for today’s need to stay connected, “People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone.” How sad, because when all is said and done you remain alone until you make friends with yourself.
Decades ago I embraced the attitude that people can’t move emotionally further in one direction than they had experienced in the opposite, but Palahniuk words are much more elegant, “The lower you fall, the higher you’ll fly.”
Many humans seek immortality by building great artifacts, but it is only in the intangibles that they will find it. “The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die. but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.”
There is nothing wrong with the human desire to live on; to be remembered long after death. “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” A worthy goal if kept in perspective. While the something we create doesn’t have to be world-changing, it is best if it is positive, although many negatives live on in infamy and offer immortality to their creators.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
