"I used to work in a funeral home to feel good about myself, just the fact that I was breathing"

In this quote, Chuck Palahniuk is expressing a sense of self-regard and function that he discovered while operating in a funeral home. Despite the somber and typically dismaying nature of the task, he found solace in the truth that he lived and able to assist others in their time of requirement. This suggests that he might have fought with feelings of worthlessness or insignificance, and working in the funeral home provided him a sense of significance and worth. It also highlights the concept that in some cases, discovering function and fulfillment in life can originate from unanticipated locations.