More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?
One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.
Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.
"If you don’t know what you want,” the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don’t.”
The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.
At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.
All of this is my fault. Sometimes you do something, and you get screwed. Sometimes it’s the things you don’t do, and you get screwed.
"It’s only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler says, "that you’re free to do anything.”
Marla’s philosophy of life, she told me, is that she can die at any moment. The tragedy of her life is that she doesn’t.
The goal was to teach each man in the project that he had the power to control history. We, each of us, can take control of the world.
"The people you’re trying to step on, we’re everyone you depend on. We’re the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you’re asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life.
"We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we’ll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re just learning this fact,” Tyler said. "So don’t fuck with us.”
I was tired and crazy and rushed, and every time I boarded a plane, I wanted the plane to crash. I envied people dying of cancer. I hated my life. I was tired and bored with my job and my furniture, and I couldn’t see any way to change things.
On a long enough time line, everyone’s survival rate drops to zero.
