Chuck Palahniuk Quotes

Maybe the only thing each of us can see is our own shadow. Carl Jung called this his shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead we see only aspects of ourselves that fall over them. Shadows. Projections. Our associations. The same way old painters would sit in a tiny dark room and trace the image of what stood outside a tiny window, in the bright sunlight. The camera obscura. Not the exact image, but everything reversed or upside down.

Each character represented a trait that resides in me.

Someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, [is] an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow.

I was in Jungian analysis for 20 years, 1976-96.

Use the creative process - singing, writing, art, dance, whatever - to get to know yourself better.

An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.

I've never gone into analysis. But Freud opened a door, I know.

I think if a character appeals to you, there are certain parts of yourself will come to the fore and other parts that will play down.

There's so much of our psychological makeup which is impermissible for us to explore because it's inappropriate or perverse or scary. I'm interested in exploring that in myself. I try to be honest with myself about everything that I feel. I'm not saying I'm able to do that all the time, but it's something I'm interested in.

I don't think we spend enough time in reflection and introspection. We don't know who we are as individuals in this culture anymore.

The only journey is the one within.

I don't like work... but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know.

All my work is always that exploration of human nature.

My favorite books are psychology, self-help, and I'm fascinated by Jung, by dream work.

My experience is that the universal is the personal. If you can get past your navel-gazing into the deepest part of yourself as a writer, you find everyone - we're all there.

In order to find yourself, who you really are, you got to be with yourself; you got to hang out with yourself.

I want people to find their inner depth.

Everyone should go inward, get curious about themselves, and investigate their shadows. It's one of the most important gifts we can give humanity. It's one of our most vital causes.

The self-explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else.

I know of no other advice than this: Go within and scale the depths of your being from which your very life springs forth.

There comes no adventure but wears to our soul the shape of our everyday thoughts.

Everyone we attract into our life is a mirror for us in certain ways. All of our relationships reflect certain parts of us. We all attract certain people into our life who have developed qualities opposite to the ones we are most identified with. In other words, they mirror our disowned selves, and we mirror theirs.

The longest journey is the journey inward.

There's novel reading, and then there's the other kind of reading. Take somebody like Carl Jung, the psychiatrist - now there's somebody worth getting into. With novels, I'm kind of fly by night. It isn't something I can be really consistent with.

I used to be too subjective, and I was always tempted to find my inner self in the exterior and dissipate my imagination on other people and on life.