‘I didn’t start writing until I was 33’

Did you get to keep any props from Fight Club the movie?

I had a leather bound screenplay with all the revisions that the cast and the director had written little notes in to me. I gave that to my editor Gerry Howard. They gave me a set of blueprints for the paper street house, the big Victorian mansion. Those I donated to an auction to benefit a girl who had been crippled in a car accident. When they were making it, 20th Century Fox couldn’t use real Ikea furniture because of copyright limitations so they had to hire artists who would make these handmade artisan versions of cheap Ikea furniture. The iconic yin yang coffee table that cost $16 in the catalogue and was made out of plastic and they ended up hiring an artist who made the same table out of wood for almost $3,000. And he had to make three. I teased David Fincher so much about the irony of spending so much money on furniture that was originally so cheap that when they finished the shooting, this huge crate showed up at my house. And it was the yin yang coffee table. It’s sat in my office for about ten years. This fall, I donated it to a no-kill animal shelter called The Pixie Project (www.pixieproject.com) so dogs and cats that have medical conditions that make them difficult to adopt out can get treatment and eventually find good homes. They will be auctioning off the coffee table over the Internet this fall. Edward Norton got word of this and has also donated items related to the movie. Now if my house catches fire, the only thing I have to save are my dogs.

You’ve been working on an anthology with The Cult, ChuckPalahniuk.net. How’s it doing?

The Cult site has been conducting a workshop for several years now and the best of the best stories have been passed on to me for feedback and I’ve selected I think ten so far. I think we need at least ten or twenty more. I just want this collection to be incredible, I want it to be something that people really hold on to, something of immense value. So I think I might open it back up for at least another year of submissions because I just want the stories to be fantastic. It’s nothing about the stories so far, I just want the stories to be extraordinary. If we’re going to do this, we have to do it right. So the anthology is still in the works. It’s about a third or half done but I want to see more of your work.

You have a crazy and loyal fan base. What’s the most bizarre tribute you’ve ever had? Is it a full body Tyler Durden tattoo? A request to father a child? What’s the craziest show of affection?

There was a woman named Zita White who works for the Lemuria Book Store in Jackson, Mississippi and she’s absolutely charming and she helped produce a fantastic event, it was the first event on this tour. And earlier this summer she spent God knows how much time embroidering this enormous portrait of the devil and it’s the kind of embroidery that layers over itself, so it grows like a bas relief sculpture, with depth to it. It must have been months and months and months of endless work. And it’s just staggering how much work she put it into that. And she embroidered quotes from the book in it. It’s really is a piece of fantastic art. That comes fresh in my mind.

Are there any books you read which we wouldn’t expect you to read?

I loved “Jane Eyre.” There was something about it. There’s something about that misanthropic brooding main character Jane Eyre that is so surly and unpleasant. If it had fighting and zombies it would be better, but that’s a really good first draft.

In Invisible Monsters Ms. Brandy Alexander and Shannon are always chasing the worst decision they can make. Have you ever done that before?

Pursued something I knew was completely the wrong thing for me? (sighs) Every day of my life. No, seriously. And all through my twenties. I didn’t start writing until I was 33, you know, because I spent 33 years making mistakes, doing horrible stupid things, being friends with the wrong people, getting the wrong degree, just doing everything wrong. But it’s kind of a blessing. Because physiologically I don’t think I could have sat down and written until that later point in my life. By then I had this huge inventory of horrible things to write about. I’m kind of glad I wasted all that time. Because it gave me the stories that I will be writing about as I get older for the rest of my life. Those years that you think of as wasted years aren’t wasted. That really is the fodder for your work.