Quotes

“I'm only confrontational with my friends.” Chuck Palahniuk

“If you take my stuff apart, you'll find my choruses of repetitions are picked up almost verbatim from Kurt Vonnegut, and my distanced fracture quality is all from Amy Hempel, who's probably my favourite writer.” Chuck Palahniuk

“It seems that so much writing is being done in the nineteenth-century model, where every connection has to be thoroughly explained.” Chuck Palahniuk

“It takes a lot to get people talking in airplanes. But once they start talking, you just can't shut them up.” Chuck Palahniuk

“Minimalism seems closest to the sophisticated storytelling of movies. Movies have really educated contemporary audiences to be the most intelligent, sophisticated audiences in history. We don't any longer need to have the relationship between one scene and the next explained. We will figure it out ourselves.” Chuck Palahniuk

“My goal is more to be remembered. They'll remember this thing and like it in the future. The trick is to stay remembered long enough for that to happen.” Chuck Palahniuk

“Nobody's told me anything to date that I've been completely reviled by.” Chuck Palahniuk

“People would ask me to autograph their bodies and then the next time I'd see them on tour they'd have my autograph tattooed. I decided I wouldn't write on people anymore, but I'd give them arms and legs and if they wanted those autographed I'd do that.” Chuck Palahniuk

“Some of the best ideas I get seem to happen when I'm doing mindless manual labor or exercise. I'm not sure how that happens, but it leaves me free for remarkable ideas to occur.” Chuck Palahniuk

“The world of American politics is more contentious than it has ever been in my lifetime.” Chuck Palahniuk

“There are people out there who will not read books, but somehow they'll read my books.” Chuck Palahniuk

“There will always be an underground.” Chuck Palahniuk

“We kind of deny the stages of life.” Chuck Palahniuk

“What I'm always trying to do with every book is to recreate the effect of the stories we heard as children in front of campfires and fireplaces - the ghost stories that engaged us.” Chuck Palahniuk

“Where would Jesus be if no one had written the gospels?” Chuck Palahniuk

“You can tell a more over-the-top incredible story if you use a nonfiction form.” Chuck Palahniuk

“You hear the best stories from ordinary people. That sense of immediacy is more real to me than a lot of writerly, literary-type crafted stories. I want that immediacy when I read a novel.” Chuck Palahniuk

“A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” Colin Powell

“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” Colin Powell

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Colin Powell

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.” Colin Powell

“Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.” Colin Powell

“Get mad, then get over it.” Colin Powell

“But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.” Colin Powell

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” Colin Powell

“Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.” Colin Powell

“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.” Colin Powell

“I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.” Colin Powell

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.” Colin Powell

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” Colin Powell