Douglas Coupland quotes - page 4

I told Ethan that I speak in an unrestricted manner to animals -- things like, aren't you just the cutest little kitty... that kind of thing, which I wouldn't dream of doing to humans. Then I realized I wish I could. (Douglas Coupland)
There's nothing at the center of what we do.
Douglas Coupland
Yesirree, life sure is good. Yesirree, nothing could possibly go wrong with everything being so good. But of course, in books, good is boring. Good is a snoozer. Good makes people close the covers and never reopen them. But you know-you'd think that just once when life finally started going my way, that cosmic writer out there would allow me and all of my co-characters to simply enjoy things for just a little while. I mean, what kind of a prick would end a book just when everything's going so well?
Douglas Coupland
Let's go out and buy a statistically average meal from a large multinational restaurant chain. That usually fixes about seventy-five percent of life's problems.
Douglas Coupland
Is feeling nothing the inevitable result of believing in nothing? ...I thought it would be such a sick joke to have to remain alive for decades and not believe in or feel anything.
Douglas Coupland
Is the hotel Marge? It has to be Marge. I want atmosphere.' Marge is Anna-Louise's word describing sad, 1950s-ish diner-type places where the waitresses are named Marge.
Douglas Coupland
Figure out what it is in life you don't do well, and then don't do it.
Douglas Coupland
Life is boring. People are vengeful. Good things always end. We do so many things and we don't know why, and if we do find out why, it's decades later and knowing why doesn't matter any more.
Douglas Coupland
As the expression goes, we spend our youth attaining wealth, and our wealth attaining youth.
Douglas Coupland
So where do you start when you want to start your life again?
Douglas Coupland
Most of us have only two or three genuinely interesting moments in our lives; the rest is filler. (Douglas Coupland)
Star Trek characters never go shopping.
Douglas Coupland
If your life had lyrics, would they be any good?
Douglas Coupland
I curled myself into a ball and cried quietly, doing that thing that only young people can do, namely, feeling sorry for myself. Once you're past thirty you lose that ability; instead of feeling sorry for yourself you turn bitter.
Douglas Coupland
Human beings are the only animal that thinks they change who they are simply by moving to a different place. Birds migrate, but it's not quite the same thing.
Douglas Coupland
Canadians can easily 'pass for American' as long as we don't accidentally use metric measurements or apologize when hit by a car.
Douglas Coupland
I didn't realize then that so much of being adult is reconciling ourselves with the awkwardness and strangeness of our own feelings. Youth is the time of life lived for some imaginary audience.
Douglas Coupland
Your ability to rationalize your own bad deeds makes you believe that the whole world is as amoral as you are.
Douglas Coupland
You can only fall in love six times in your life. Choose wisely.
Douglas Coupland
New York is a theme park for people with IQs over 108.
Douglas Coupland
If you don't have a spiritual practice in place when times are good, you can't expect to suddenly develop one during a moment of crisis. (Douglas Coupland)
Question: If there were two of you which one would win?
Douglas Coupland
It's like male geeks don't know how to deal with real live women, so they just assume it's a user interface problem. Not their fault. They'll just wait for the next version to come out- something more "user friendly.
Douglas Coupland
If you're not a tree hugger, then you're a what, a tree hater?
Douglas Coupland
I would like to fall in love again but my only hope is that love doesn't happen to me so often after this. I don't want to get so used to falling in love that i get curious to experience something more extreme - whatever that may be.
Douglas Coupland