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You Become Smart When You Don't Need To Quote Someone Anymore." I Am Still Stupid: I Quoted Chuck Palahiniuk
-Chuck Palahniuk
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You Become Smart When

Chuck Palahniuk
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You Become Smart When You Don't Need To Quote Someone Anymore." I Am Still Stupid: I Quoted Chuck Palahiniuk

Understanding the Quote: "you become smart when you don't need to quote someone anymore." i..."

This quote by Chuck Palahniuk reflects deeply on the theme of smart. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Smart, Stupid, Needs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Chuck Palahniuk interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk is celebrated for insightful thoughts on smart and stupid. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Smart
Stupid
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Abortion Occurs So Frequently In My Stories. Abortion Sort Of Synthesizes Both Sex And Death. To Have Sex And Death Placed As Close To One Another As Possible Is Always A Goal Of Mine.
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You Always Kill The One You Love.
One You Love
You’ve Thrown Down The Gauntlet. You’ve Brought My Wrath Down Upon Your House. Now, To Prove That I Exist I Must Kill You. As The Child Outlives The Father, So Must The Character Bury The Author. If You Are, In Fact, My Continuing Author, Then Killing You Will End My Existence As Well. Small Loss. Such A Life, As Your Puppet, Is Not Worth Living. But… If I Destroy You And Your Dreck Script, And I Still Exist… Then My Existence Will Be Glorious, For I Will Become My Own Master.
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On The Other Side Of The Handrail, The Hallway's Gray Marble Floor Looks As If We've Climbed A Stairway Through The Clouds.
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You're Always Haunted By The Idea You're Wasting Your Life.
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Funerals Are All Abstract Ceremony.
Funeral
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Life's Greatest Comfort Is Being Able To Look Over Your Shoulder And See People Worse Off, Waiting In Line Behind You.
Waiting In Line
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As We Grow Older I Always Think, Why Didn't I Do More When I Was Young, Why Didn't I Risk More?
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There Are Bodies Buried Everywhere You Just Have To Know Where To Look.
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Everyone Wants To Be Tested And Challenged. Everyone Would Like A Good, Honest Fight To Exhaust Their Frustrations.
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People Used What They Called A Telephone Because They Hated Being Close Together And They Were Scared Of Being Alone.
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I'm Fascinated By The Whole Issue Of Arousal Addiction, Which Seems To Be Mostly A Problem For Young Men.
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What We Think Of As Halloween Is Really The Product Of Media Barons, City Mayors, And Candy-makers. You Know, Before The 1920s, Halloween Was Really A Terrible, Terrible Night.
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Hysteria Is Impossible Without An Audience. Panicking By Yourself Is The Same As Laughing Alone In An Empty Room. You Feel Really Silly.
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There Is A Social Contract In "fight Club" And In "choke" Where The Protagonist Has Deceived A Whole Bunch Of People. In "choke" It's All Of These People Who Think That They've Saved His Life, And Really Care About Him Because They've Embraced Him And They've Been His Saviors. In "fight Club" It's All Of These People Who Are Dying Of Various Diseases, And They Thought That Edward Norton Was Also Dying So They Allowed Him Really Strong Pent-up Emotions.
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You're Safe Because You're So Trapped Inside Your Culture. Anything You Can Conceive Of Is Fine Because You Can Conceive Of It.
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My First Time I Jacked Off, I Thought I'd Invented It. I Looked Down At My Sloppy Handful Of Junk And Thought, This Is Going To Make Me Rich.
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Could You Hold The Chainsaw A Bit Closer To Your Mouth, Please?
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Nevertheless, If You Ask Me, Most People Have Children Just As Their Own Enthusiasm About Life Begins To Wane. A Child Allows Us To Revisit The Excitement We Once Felt About, Well... Everything. A Generation Later, Our Grandkids Bump Up Our Enthusiasm Yet Again. Reproducing Is A Kind Of Booster Shot To Keep Us Loving Life.
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I Really Love Idiot, Enlightened Characters - These Characters Who Fail To Engage With The Drama Of Their Immediate Circumstances; They Fail To Be Reactive And Enrolled By Drama As It Happens Around Them.
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During The First World War, I Told Her, Hitler Had Been A Runner, Delivering Messages Between The German Trenches, And He Was Disgusted By Seeing His Fellow Soldiers Visit French Brothels. To Keep The Aryan Bloodlines Pure,and Prevent The Spread Of Venereal Disease, He Commissioned An Inflatable Doll That Nazi Troops Could Take Into Battle. Hitler Himself Designed The Dolls To Have Blond Hair And Large Breasts. The Allied Firebombing Of Dresden Destroyed The Factory Before The Dolls Could Ever Go Into Wide Distribution.
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What They Don't Teach You In Art School Is How Your Whole Life Is About Discovering Who You Already Were.
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The Tiny Space, The Toilet, Two Hundred Strangers Just A Few Inches Away, It's So Exciting, The Lack Of Room To Maneuver, It Helps If You're Double-jointed. Use Your Imagination. Some Creativity And A Few Simple Stretching Exercises And You Can Be Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Heaven's Door. You'll Be Amazed How Time Flies.
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That Guy Behind Me On The Airplane? He's Been Kicking My Seat Because He Hates Me. He's Kicking My Seat Because He Hates Me And I'm Gonna Kill Him. When We Get Off This Plane, I'm Gonna Make Eye Contact. I'm Gonna Kill That Guy. And All Of That Is Just Stuff In My Head, But It's Good To Get Rid Of That Stuff.
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What You Forget When You're Planning A Hijack By Yourself Is Somewhere Along The Line, You Might Need To Neglect Your Hostages Just Long Enough So You Can Use The Bathroom.
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We Don't Need Women. There Are Plenty Other Things In The World To Have Sex With, Just Go To A Sexaholics Meeting And Take Notes. There's Microwaved Watermelons. There's The Vibrating Handles Of Lawn Mowers Right At Crotch Level. There's Vacuum Cleaners And Beanbag Chairs. Internet Sites. All Those Old Chat Room Sex Hounds Pretending To Be Sixteen-year-old Girls. For Serious, Old Fbi Guys Makes The Sexiest Cyberbabes.
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Be Famous. Be A Big Social Experiment In Getting What You Don't Want. Find Value In What We've Been Taught Is Worthless. Find Good In What The World Says Is Evil. I'm Giving You My Life Because I Want The Whole World To Know You. I Wish The Whole World Would Embrace What It Hates. Find What You're Afraid Of Most And Go Live There.
Hate
Evil
Giving
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Moments
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Joy
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Sex Pretty Much Cures Everything.
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Special
Sacred
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Character
Boring
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Should
Worst
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Stories
Becoming
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Burning Down
A Good Story Should Change The Way You See The World.
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Way
Stories
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Generations
Flattery
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Mother
Believe
Love You
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Fighting
Doubt
Wish
Isn't A Kid Alive Who Doesn't Dream About Rewarding Her Folks, Or Punishing Them.
Dream
Kids
Alive
Some Little Part Of Themselves For Someone In The Future To Discover. Maybe A Thought. We Were Here. We Built This. A Reminder.
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Reminders
Built
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Want
Whole Life
Whole
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Priorities
Legs
Hell
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Two
Giving
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Heart
Knives
Too Late
We Don't Have A Great War In Our Generation, Or A Great Depression, But We Do, We Have A Great War Of The Spirit. We Have A Great Revolution Against The Culture. The Great Depression Is Our Lives. We Have A Spiritual Depression.
Depression
Spiritual
War
Everyone Is Equal And Everyone Is Forced To Participate; You Can't Just Be A Spectator.
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Everyone Is Equal
Spectators
I Think We're In An Age Starved For Genuine Experiences, Instead Of Cathartic Phony Experiences Through The Media, Structured, Engineered Experiences. And Those Are The Fast Food, The Masturbation Of Experience. They Don't Really Exhaust Any Aspect Of Ourselves; They Don't Make Us Any Stronger.
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Media
Age
Some People Still Think Knowledge Is Power.
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People
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Tired
Air
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Mean
Artist
Everyone Holds A Certain Type Of Power. For Young People, It's Their Youth, Their Attractiveness, And Their Energy. But They're Terrified That As Those Qualities Fade, What Are They Going To Replace That Form Of Power With?
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Quality
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Age
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Kids
Government
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Light
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Novelists
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Stories
Gathering
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Men
Rights
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House
Puppy
Wonder
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Fear
Law
Boredom
I Say Never Be Complete, I Say Stop Being Perfect, I Say Let... Lets Evolve, Let The Chips Fall Where They May.
Life
Fall
Perfect
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Want
Consumerism
Lullaby
I Hate How I Don't Feel Real Enough Unless People Are Watching.
Life
Hate
Real
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Book
Break Through
People
So If You Think This Is Going To Save You...if You Think Anything Is Going To Save You...please Consider This Your Final Warning.
Thinking
Finals
Warning
If People Thought You Were Dying, They Gave You Their Full Attention.
Death
People
Dying
First Your Parents, They Give You Your Life, But Then They Try To Give You Their Life.
Giving
Parent
Trying
I Always Thought I'd Write When I Retired - When I Turned 65. But By The Time I Was 33, To Tell You The Truth, I Was A Little Bored With Drugs And Sex, And I Thought I'd Do The Writing Thing.
Sex
Writing
Bored
I Will Never Write A Sequel To Anything That I Will Ever Write.
Writing
Sequels
I Take Pens And I Write On The Inside Of My Arm. When I'm With People And Somebody Says A Really Fascinating Anecdote, Or Fact, Or Phrase, I'll Write It On The Inside Of My Arm. At The End Of The Day, I'll Take The Very Best Things That Are On My Arm And I'll Copy Them Into A Notebook That I Always Carry And Only When The Weather Is Absolutely Terrible Will I Really Key The Very Best Of That Notebook Into The Computer. At That Point, It's All Sort Of Censored Twice - Only The Best Things Go From The Arm To The Book And Only The Best Things Go From The Book To The Computer.
Notebook
Writing
Weather
You Must Realize That One Day You Will Die. Until Then You Are Worthless.
One Day
Literature
Realizing
Just Let Yourself Be Broken And Humiliated. Just Your Whole Life, Keep Telling People, I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry.
Sorry
People
Broken
Potassium Cyanide," Says The Talent Wrangler As She Leans Over To Pick Up A Paper Napkin Off The Floor. "found Naturally In The Cassava Or Manioc Roots Native To Africa, Used To Tint Architectural Blueprints In The Form Of The Deep-blue Pigment Known As Prussian Blue. Hence The Shade 'cyan' Blue.
Roots
Blue
Paper
To Some Of Us, The Nights Are Too Long. To Some, The Days.
Night
Long
It's All Mirror, Mirror On The Wall Because Beauty Is Power The Same Way Money Is Power The Same Way A Gun Is Power.
Beauty
Wall
Gun
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Book
People
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Today
Resignation
Maybe Humans Are Just The Pet Alligators That God Flushed Down The Toilet.
Owning A Pet
Adorable
Literature
She's Not Wearing Makeup So Her Face Just Looks Like Skin.
Makeup
Skins
Cosmetics
You Know That Old Phrase ‘those Who Don’t Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It’? Well, I Think Those Who Remember The Past Are Even Worse Off.
Past
Thinking
Phrases
I Always Really Curious To See How People Interpret Things. I Know My Version, And I'm Kind Of Bored With My Version So I Want To See Their Version.
People
Bored
Want
I'm Not Sure What We're Running From. Nobody. Or The Future. Fate. Growing Up. Getting Old. Picking Up The Pieces. As If Running We Won't Have To Get On With Our Lives.
Running
Growing Up
Fate
I Spend Most Of My Life Just Listening To People.
People
Listening
Just Listen
Books Can Create A Depth Of Story, A Background Of Information And Ideas, That Televison And Movies Can't. Sure, The Television Shows May Shock, But Only On A Superficial Level. They'd Never Risk Market Share To Really Explore The Issues. They Report, But Don't Analyze Or Suggest Any New Ways For Living Our Lives.
Book
Ideas
Issues
If It Is The Case That Love Does Survive Death, Then You May Consider This To Be A Happy Ending. Boy Meets Girl. Boy Gets Girl. Happily Ever After Or Not.
Girl
Boys
Doe
Parenthood Is The Opiate Of The Masses.
Parenting
Opiates
Parenthood
The Same Way A Compact Disk Isn't Responsible For What's Recorded On It, That's How We Are. You're About As Free To Act As A Programmed Computer. You're About As One-of-a-kind As A Dollar Bill.
Dollar Bills
Dollars
Way
That’s The American Dream: To Make Your Life Into Something You Can Sell.
Life
Sarcastic
Dream
If You Ask Me, Reincarnation Is Just Another Way To Procrastinate.
Procrastination
Way
Reincarnation
Your Birth Is A Mistake You'll Spend Your Whole Life Trying To Correct.
Mistake
Trying
Birth Life
I Have A Secret Goal With My Editor - He Has Asthma And Uses His Inhaler, And After I Send Him A New Manuscript, I'll Have His Assistant Phone Me And Tell Me How Many Times He Had To Get His Inhaler Out While Reading A Draft. It's My Secret Laugh Meter.
Reading
Phones
Editors
I've Been Choking To Death For Years. By Now This Should Be Easy.
Years
Easy
Choke
For Official Record, Announce Instructor, The State Requires No Epic Hero. No Strive Achieve Personal Celebrity Of Spotlight And Applause. Lectures Instructor, The State Desires Best Ideal Perform As Mediocre. No Gain Attention Showboat. No Buffoon. Best Effort So Occur Average. Suppress Climbing Ego. Become Ordinary. Invisible.
Hero
Epic
Climbing
Masochism Is A Valuable Job Skill.
Jobs
Skills
Valuable
We Live And We Die And Anything Else Is Just A Delusion.
Delusion
Dies
If Emotion Can Create A Physical Action, Then Duplicating The Physical Action Can Re-create The Emotion.
Action
Emotion
Ifs
I See The Strongest And The Smartest Men Who Have Ever Lived... And These Men Are Pumping Gas And Waiting Tables.
Men
Waiting
Tables
Find Joy In Everything You Choose To Do. Every Job, Relationship, Home... It's Your Responsibility To Love It, Or Change It.
Love
Relationship
Boyfriend
If You Look At Old Pictures, Irene Casey Is So Pretty. Not Just Young, But Pretty The Way You Look When Your Face Goes Smooth, The Skin Around Your Eyes And Lips Relaxed, The Pretty You Only Look When You Love The Person Taking The Picture.
Eye
Skins
Looks
Nothing Is Static. Even The Mona Lisa Is Falling Apart. Since Fight Club, I Can Wiggle Half The Teeth In My Jaw. Maybe Self-improvement Isn't The Answer. Maybe Self-destruction Is The Answer.
Suicide
Self Harm
Fall
Some Mythological Fat Asswipe Drives Our National Economy.
Economy
Fats
National Economy
We Went Sailing One Time, And He Wore A Speedo, And Any Smart Woman Should Know That Means Bisexual At Least.
Smart
Mean
Bisexual
Folks Build A Reputation By Attacking You While You’re Alive - Or Praising You After You Ain’t.
Alive
Reputation
Praise
In The End, It's Never What You Worry About That Gets You.
Worry
Ends
It's Obsequious Little Nicety-nice Girls Like Me Who Allow Assholes To Run The World: Miss Harlot O'harlots, Billionaire Phony Tree Huggers, Hypocrite Drug-snorting, Weed-puffing Peace Activists Who Fund The Mass-murdering Drug Cartels And Perpetuate Crushing Poverty In Dirt-poor Banana Republics. It's My Petty Fear Of Personal Rejection That Allows So Many True Evils To Exist. My Cowardice Enables Atrocities.
Crush
Girl
Running
Anything Pretty,' Claire Will Tell You, 'it's Only For Sale Because No One Wants It.
Want
Claire
The Truth Is, Wherever You Choose To Be, It's The Wrong Place.
Truth Is
You Choose
The Joke Is, We All Have The Same Punchline.
Punchlines
Jokes
Actually, Watching Television And Surfing The Internet Are Really Excellent Practice For Being Dead.
Practice
Surfing
Television
Want To Talk Third-wave Feminism, You Could Cite Ariel Levy And The Idea That Women Have Internalized Male Oppression. Going To Spring Break At Fort Lauderdale, Getting Drunk, And Flashing Your Breasts Isn't An Act Of Personal Empowerment. It's You, So Fashioned And Programmed By The Construct Of Patriarchal Society That You No Longer Know What's Best For Yourself. A Damsel Too Dumb To Even Know She's In Distress.
Spring
Ideas
Drunk
Marla Tells Me How In The Wild You Don't See Old Animals Because As Soon As They Age, Animals Die. If They Get Sick Or Slow Down, Something Stronger Kills Them. Animals Aren't Meant To Get Old. Marla Lies Down On Her Bed And Undoes The Tie On Her Bathrobe, And Says Our Culture Has Made Death Something Wrong. Old Animals Should Be An Unnatural Exception. Freaks.
Death
Lying
Animal
This Is The Worst Problem With Living History Museums. They Always Leave The Best Parts Out. Like Typhus. And Opium. And Scarlet Letters. Shunning. Witch-burning.
Museums
Burning
Letters
I'm Really Glad That I Made A Lot Of Mistakes, Poorly Chose My Friends Throughout My Twenties, And Didn't Have A Rocket Trajectory That Set Me On One Path Without Making Any Mistakes Or Having Any Setbacks. The Older I Get, The More I Realize That It's All Of These Failed, Horrible Things From My Past, And The Stories That They Generated, That Are The Things I Will Draw On For The Rest Of My Life.
Mistake
Past
Stories
It's Okay To Cry As Long As You're Faking It.
Long
Cry
Faking It
We Can Spend Our Lives Letting The World Tell Us Who We Are. Sane Or Insane. Saints Or Sex Addicts. Heroes Or Victims. Letting History Tell Us How Good Or Bad We Are. Letting Our Past Decide Our Future. Or We Can Decide For Ourselves. And Maybe It's Our Job To Invent Something Better.
Inspiring
Travel
Jobs
Jump Way Back To One Time, Evie And Me Did This Fashion Shoot In A Junk Yard, In A Slaughterhouse, In A Mortuary. We'd Go Anywhere To Look Good By Comparison, And What I Realize Is Mostly What I Hate About Evie Is The Fact That She's So Vain And Stupid And Needy. But What I Hate Most Is How She's Just Like Me. What I Really Hate Is Me So I Hate Pretty Much Everybody.
Fashion
Hate
Stupid
I Might Be A Touch Of A Sadist And A Little Bit Jejune... But At Least I'm Not A Victim, Not Any Longer. I Hope. I Hope, Therefore I Am.
Littles
Might
Victim
The Greatest Weapon Any Warrior Can Carry Into Battle Is Absolute Certainty Of Her Eternal Soul.
Warrior
Soul
Battle
I Know This Because Tyler Knows This.
Fight Club Novel
Knows
Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, I'll Be Anybody You Want Me To Be. Use Me. Change Me. I Can Be Thin With Big Breasts And Big Hair. Take Me Apart. Make Me Into Anything, But Just Love Me.
Hair
Use
Want
This Is The Biggest Mistake I Could Think Would Save Me. I Wanted To Give Up The Idea That I Had Any Control. Shake Things Up. To Be Saved By Chaos. To See If I Could Cope, I Wanted To Force Myself To Grow Again. To Explode My Comfort Zone.
Giving Up
Mistake
Thinking
My Theory Is That Church Used To Be That Place. Instead Of Being A Place Where You Went To Look Good, It Was A Place Where You Could Risk Going Every Week To Look Your Worst.
Risk
Church
Looks
Somehow People Have Been Sold On The Idea That Only Professionals Can Entertain Them, That Only Professionals Can Sing Or Tell Jokes. And People Are Cut Out Of This Creativity Loop, And Creativity Is Being Limited To These Large, Centralized Voices.
Creativity
Cutting
Ideas
Everything Is A Self-portrait. Everything Is A Diary.
Self
Portraits
Diaries
Of All The Priceless Objects Left Behind, This Is What We Rescue. These Artifacts. Memory Cues. Useless Souvenirs. Nothing You Could Auction. The Scars Left From Happiness.
Memories
Useless
Auctions
For Sure, Even The Worst Blow Job Is Better Than, Say, Sniffing The Best Rose ... Watching The Greatest Sunset. Hearing Children Laugh.
Jobs
Children
Sunset
Stop Trying To Control Everything And Just Let Go! Let Go!
Letting Go
Trying
Hitting Bottom
Fathers. Mothers. With All Their Caring And Attention. They Will Fuck You Up, Every Time.
Mother
Father
Caring
I Wanted To Destroy Everything Beautiful I'd Never Have.
Beautiful
Ozone
Ozone Layer
I Like To Get People Moving And Jumping. I Think It's Good To Add More Emotion And Chaos.
Moving
Thinking
Jumping
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