Chuck Palahniuk Quotes

In America, we can reinvent ourselves - we're encouraged to.

One thing about me is that I'm very much like the Black Madonna. I love to reinvent myself and that's because I am a very free person.

Glam really did plant seeds for a new identity. I think a lot of kids needed that - that sense of reinvention. Kids learned that however crazy you may think it is, there is a place for what you want to do and who you want to be.

I know for myself, and maybe I'm weird or whatever, but the whole thing is about constantly redefining identity.

I might not ever fully know who I am, but I also believe that I could be whoever I want, whenever I want.

Seriously, I wanted to be an artist because I saw that it meant endless possibilities. I came from a badly managed family background, so art was a way of reinventing myself.

There was a period when I had a hard time reconciling all the different parts of me in a way that I thought would make sense to others.

It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.

On some level, we as human beings can be who we want to be.

I love to reinvent myself, and that's because I am a very free person. I do what I feel, and I love who I am.

America saw me as a projection of me that I always wanted. That's why I love going to America so much. I feel like I started off in America exactly how I wanted to start everywhere.

Carving out an identity for yourself is important so I'm trying to do that as well.

What I find interesting as a 40-year-old is the idea of trying to be a part of a pronounced, continuing independent culture. The basic tenet of America is that you rebel and then you get real.

I do not think I reinvent myself. Wearing my hair differently or changing my style of dress is playing dress-up. I don't take it too seriously.

I changed my name when I was 13. I don't know why but it made sense at the time. I wanted another identity. I wanted to reinvent myself.

I think there's a lot of pressure on young people to really be the thing that everyone is telling them that they are, opposed to discovering it for themselves.

What makes America unique in the world is the idea of the self-directed life.

… not to destroy individualism but to protect it

There's nothing harder than defining oneself.

When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's difficult to find your own identity.

I invented myself.

It's hard to live in a blind and aimless - or dishonest, rather - narrative when somebody in your family is going farther toward - or at least think they are and say they are - their true self.

What is your identity, and how do you know who you are if you don't have language?

Every one of us at some point in our lives has had the struggle with identity.

All my work is not personal - I've been trying to get away from that into the true self underneath all the tastes and things we think make up a self.