# Quote — Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted

> The earth, he'd say, is just a big machine. A big processing plant. A factory. That's your big answer. The big truth. Think of a rock polisher, one of those drums, goes round and round, rolls twenty-four/seven, full of water and rocks and gravel. Grinding it all up. Round and round. Polishing those ugly rocks into gemstones. That's the earth. Why it goes round. We're the rocks. And what happens to us--the drama and pain and joy and war and sickness and victory and abuse--why, that's just the water and sand to erode us. Grind us down. To polish us up, nice and bright.

- Author: [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md)
- Book: [Haunted](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Haunted_(2005)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/the-earth-hed

## More from this book

> If there's a trick to doing a job you hate... Mrs. Clark says it's to find a job you hate even more.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/if-theres-a-trick.md)

> A book is as private and consensual as sex.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/a-book-is-as-private.md)

> That's the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/thats-the-american.md)