Burnt Tongues Quotes

“Young people want mirrors. Older people want art.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“Besides, what's in a name? Actually, a lot. Whether taken from a parent or grandparent, some saint, or even the late great Elvis, your name insists another person's dream of what you should have been. The portrait of some ancestral ideal lingers through heirloom names. Gender specific names imply all sorts of expectations. More than just a signifier used to summon, instruct, address, accuse, sometimes praise us, our names define and thereby limit us. They put us in a cage.”
― Brien Piechos, Burnt Tongues

“At the end of the day, your life is just a story. If you don’t like the direction it’s going, change it. Rewrite it. When you rewrite a sentence, you erase it and start over until you get it right. Yes, it’s a little more complicated with a life, but the principle is the same. And remember, don’t let anyone ever tell you that your revisions are not the truth.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“I liked it better when you couldn’t be so sure. When terrifying rumors were distant enough to be a UFO at the bottom of Loch Ness. When the horribly compelling train-wreck tragedies of less fortunate people’s lives were only as real as you let them be. Just a cover of a magazine, a black-and-white photo on some late-night commercial for a charity. Now confirmation is just a mouse click away.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“What you have to do is work on yourself. Make yourself attractive through the things you do, the principles you hold dear, and the goals you’ve set for yourself. Then you can try to get a woman. You can’t expect her to love you just because you love her back. That only happens when the woman is weak.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“I’m the one who still needs rewriting. Don’t we all?”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“For the rest of my life, a different me will pick up this book again and again, read every page and never feel as if I've ever finished it because I myself am never finished”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“Yes, Icarus fell to earth after flying too close to the sun, but what a glorious fall it must have been. Almost worth the flaming wings tied to his arms, waving helplessly in a shower of”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“It’s hard to explain to someone who’s never had the experience—the unmistakable, life-altering moment when you read a book and realize that someone out in the world has read your mind and put into words all the thoughts and ideas crashing around inside your own head. For me, it was like Don Swanstrom”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“As the cubs slept, Peggy licked their burnt-orange coats clean and watched over them diligently. The way she looked at them as they slept, you knew she would do anything to protect them. Even with only one good paw. Even if it meant she would have to sacrifice her own life to keep them safe. Witnessing that kind of unconditional love was a miracle of nature. Moments like those are what made me want to become a vet. Secretly,”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“Now, her doc doesn’t say any of this was the reason her mommy parts cleaned house, but she doesn’t say it helped, either. Dana’s”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“Young people want mirrors. Older people want art. If I couldn’t see myself, my world, in Cheever or Gatsby, I rejected them.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues

“Every year, I open Slaves of New York or The Day of the Locust or even Jesus’ Son and enjoy it as if it’s a wholly different book. Of course, it’s not the book that’s changing. It’s me. I’m the one who still needs rewriting. Don’t we all?”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues Anthology