There's an old saying: 'No piece of writing is ever finished, it's just abandoned.' But my own rule is: No piece of work is done until you want to kill everyone involved in the publishing process, especially yourself.
How everything you ever love will reject you or die. Everything you ever create will be thrown away. Everything you're proud of will end up as trash.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the inevitability of loss and decay in life, emphasizing that everything cherished will ultimately fade away or be discarded.
This quote by Chuck Palahniuk delves into the harsh realities of existence where the things we love, create, and take pride in are ultimately transitory. It highlights a philosophical perspective on life's impermanence, suggesting that attachment leads to suffering as everything we hold dear is susceptible to rejection or destruction. The starkness of this sentiment invites reflection on the nature of our attachments and the fleeting essence of pride and creativity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on the nature of art, one might use this quote to illustrate the transient nature of artistic creations.
More from Chuck Palahniuk
All quotes βGriping isn't the same as creating something. Rebelling isn't rebuilding. Ridiculing isn't replacing. We've taken the world apart but we have no idea what to do with the pieces.
If we can forgive whatβs been done to us... If we can forgive what weβve done to others... If we can leave all of our stories behind. Our being villains or victims. Only then can we maybe rescue the world.
We're all trapped. It's always 1734. All of us, we're stuck in the same time capsule, the same as those television shows where the same people are marooned on the same desert island for thirty seasons and never age or escape. They just wear more makeup. In a creepy way, those shows are maybe too authentic.
One thing I really envy about my friends who have kids is that as their children develop, they're able to revisit their own developmental stages and recognise themselves and undo a lot of things they decided.
If you knew that your life was merely a phase or short, short segment of your entire existence, how would you live? Knowing nothing 'real' was at risk, what would you do? You'd live a gigantic, bold, fun, dazzling life. You know you would. That's what the ghosts want us to do - all the exciting things they no longer can.
Similar quotes
I don't believe in the concept of hell, but if I did I would think of it as filled with people who were cruel to animals.
His eyes are wild, psychotic slits that bat-dance in your soul looking for good things to crush or bad elements to identify with.
It is not man who is the enemy of the human species. It is the irrational; it is the spiritual when it is divorced from the material; from the lesson in one beating heart or one bleeding vein.
We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here highly resolve that we shall pass them on, as we will pass on an undivided Republic purged of racism and slavery, to our descendants. The popgun discharges of a few pathetic sectarians and crackpot revisionists are negligible, and will be drowned by the mounting chorus that demands: 'Mr Jefferson! BUILD UP THAT WALL'.
Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.