Chuck Palahniuk Quotes

You can't ever create defensively. You just have to create the next thing that really speaks to you.

I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, 'Well, what do you love most?' That's how I started painting money.

When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best - that is inspiration.

I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman.

Art, it seems to me, doesn't need freedom so much as it needs courage and love - some would call it 'soul' or 'Eros.'

I know my choices will be creative so long as I follow my heart.

The comfort zone is the great enemy to creativity; moving beyond it necessitates intuition, which in turn configures new perspectives and conquers fears.

Make your heart bleed! Put your soul into that damn thing. And try new things.

Googling yourself is like staring at a flame and then putting your hand in it.

Herman Melville said that artists have to take a dive and either you hit your head on a rock and you split your skull and you die … or that blow to the head is so inspiring that you come back and do the best work that you ever did. BUT you have to take the dive and you do not know what the results will be.

The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in a man; it cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create itself - In Endymion, I leaped headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable sdvice.

I just do my thing and try each show to be more honest about why I am and who I am. It's quite tricky and actually nerve-racking to do that. It's kind of a happy train wreck.

I've always been somebody who, when I started a picture, never knew what the next picture would be.

I always say, and I truly believe this, that my work is three steps ahead of me. I have an idea for something and I tend to feel like it's leading me and I'll follow the process through, and it's not until after I've seen it that I truly understand why I'm doing this.

Trust that little voice in your head that says 'Wouldn't it be interesting if...'; And then do it.

A lot of what has pushed me forward is desire, and I have expressed that in my songwriting - perhaps because it's safer!

Creating art is painful. It takes time, practice, and the courage to stand alone.

What I try to do as an actor is constantly find that, find ways to risk, find opportunities to fall on my face if it's going to be worth it, and then maybe I'll surprise myself.

You don't make a film because the audience is ready for it. You make a film because you have questions that are in your gut.

To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.

I like taking a path into new country, and I always take the darker path. Not because it's dark, but because there's a secret there that you can share when you get out. That's what I liked as a kid. That's how I approach my work. With a face like mine, it's lucky I have a heart that likes that.

Sarah Vaughan is one of my greatest heroes. She personifies what an artist is all about, taking risks, daring to go beyond the boundaries of safety and convention. It takes courage to share your vulnerability.

The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

It's very important that young artists push boundaries, because sometimes you have this urge to do something - like the impulsive and dangerous urges I had as a child - and if you don't follow through with it you might miss out on a developmental experience.