I am reading Henry James 'Portrait of a Lady' and I come across a quote I am immediatly drawn to. Partly because it fits into my life philosophy and partly  because I've heard it before. Only this time it was written more than one hundred years prior to the example in Chuck Palahniuk book, 'Diary.'

    " ..every human being has his shell, and you must take the shell into account. By the shell I mean the whole envelope of circumstances. There is no such thing as an isolated man or woman; we are each of us made up of a cluster of appurtenances. What do you call one's self? Where does it begin? Where does it end? It overflows into everything that belongs to us-and then it flows back again. I know that a large part of myself is in the dresses I choose to wear. I have a great respect for things!  One's self- for other people - is one's expression of one's self; and one's house, one's clothes, the books one reads, the company one keeps- these things are all expressive."
                                                                    Henry James Portrait of a Lady 1881

    "....everything you do is a self-portrait. It might look like Saint George and the Dragon or The Rape of the Sabine Women, but the angle you use, the lighting, the composition, the technique, they're all you. Even the reason why you chose this scene, it's you. You are every color and brushstroke....The only thing an artist can do is describe his own face...Your handwriting. The way you walk. Which china pattern you choose. It's all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand.Everything is a self-portrait. Everything is a diary. . . ."
                                                                       Chuck Palahniuk Diary 2003

James brings up the idea of how interconnected humanity is while Palahniuk is doomed to eternal nihilism. His characters always are stuck in a quagmire of self inflicted isolation from community.