Survivor

Survivor , novel by Chuck Palahniuk

• "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."

• "Here in the cockpit of Flight 2039, the first of the four engines has just flamed out. Where we're at right here is the beginning of the end."

• "You have a choice. Live or die.
  

Every breath is a choice.

Every minute is a choice.

Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice. Every time you don't crash your car, you reenlist."

• "Because the only difference between a suicide and a martyrdom really is press coverage."

• "People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were too scared of being alone."

• "The shortest distance between the points is a time line, a schedule, a map of your time, the itinerary for the rest of your life. Nothing shows you the straight line from here to death like a list."

• "You think maybe of you just work harder and faster, you can hold off the chaos, but then one day you're changing a patio lightbulb with a 5-year life span and realize how you'll only be changing this light maybe ten more times before you'll be dead.
  

Time is running out. There isn't the kind of energy you used to have. You start to slow down."

• "Reality means you live until you die," the agent says. "The real truth is nobody wants reality"

• "It's a shame," the agent says, "how medical technology is still lagging behind the marketing side of things. I mean, we've had all the sales support in place for years, the coffee mug giveaways to physicians, the feel-good magazine ads, the total product launch, but it's he same old violin in the background R&D is still years behind. The lab monkeys are still dropping like flies."

• "It's not that I want to get married.
  

I admire guys who can commit to a tattoo."

• "Kill myself?

Thanks, I say. No, thanks.

Let's not rush anything here."