By the time you read this, you’ll be older than you remember.

The June 22 entry opens with this sentence and then turns to the anatomy of wrinkles and the ways grief changes a face. It eventually identifies its addressee as Peter Wilmot and links his face to his wife, daughter and mother. The publisher’s synopsis explains that Peter is in a coma after a suicide attempt and that his wife Misty is dealing with the aftermath.

The person who eventually reads the diary will have aged beyond the version of himself held in memory.

It is often usable as a general observation about aging, but its immediate address is to Peter, not simply to any reader. The entry’s account of his family’s suffering gives it a harsher edge than a gentle reminder that time passes.

Time, Change

• But when you’re famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. Marilyn Monroe
• There is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock. Charles Bukowski
• A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered. (misattributed) Marilyn Monroe
• The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up.
• Look at you comforting others with the words you wish someone had said to you. (not found) Fyodor Dostoevsky

Chuck Palahniuk, Diary (2003), Entry headed June 22, opening sentence. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/older-than-you-remember/ (25 October 2026).

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