Quotessence
Home / Authors / Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsThinkingWorldFeelsWayWantYearsHumansEnds

Famous Douglas Coupland Quotes

“I think if human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween. Wouldn't life be more interesting that way? And now that I think about it, why the heck don't they? Who made the rule that everybody has to dress like sheep 364 days of the year? Think of all the people you'd meet if they were in costume every day. People would be so much easier to talk to - like talking to dogs.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayYearsHumansMadeWould BeLife IsHuman BeingsInterestingTalkingDogEasierDressesGenuineSheepHalloweenCostumesDays Of The YearHalloween Greeting
Author:Douglas Coupland
Create image

“believe that you've had most of your important memories by the time you're thirty. After that, memory becomes water overflowing into an already full cup. New experiences just don't register in the same way or with the same impact. I could be shooting heroin with the Princess of Wales, naked in a crashing jet, and the experience still couldn't compare to the time the cops chased us after we threw the Taylors' patio furniture into their pool in eleventh grade.”

WayBelieveStillsImportantWaterMemoriesImpactNakedCupsShootingCompareThirtyGradesPoolPrincessCopFurnitureJetRegisterHeroinWalesNew Experiences
Author:Douglas Coupland
Create image

“When you're young, you always feel that life hasn't yet begun—that "life" is always scheduled to begin next week, next month, next year, after the holidays—whenever. But then suddenly you're old and the scheduled life didn't arrive. You find yourself asking, 'Well then, exactly what was it I was having—that interlude—the scrambly madness—all that time I had before?”

FeelsYearsWellsYoungLife IsNextWeekMonthsMadnessAskingHolidayFinding YourselfNext YearNext Week
Book:Life After God
Create image

“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected; I have always considered the rain to be healing—a blanket—the comfort of a friend. Without at least some rain in any given day, or at least a cloud or two on the horizon, I feel overwhelmed by the information of sunlight and yearn for the vital, muffling gift of falling water.”

LifeFeelsMadeTwoFallGivenWaterHealingInformationComfortSafeRainCloudsHorizonProtectedSunlightOverwhelmedRichnessBlanketRain And SnowFalling Water
Book:Life After God
Create image

“Everybody has a ‘gripping stranger’ in their lives, Andy, a stranger who unwittingly possesses a bizarre hold over you. Maybe it’s the kid in cut-offs who mows your lawn or the woman wearing White Shoulders who stamps your book at the library—a stranger who, if you were to come home and find a message from them on your answering machine saying ‘Drop everything. I love you. Come away with me now to Florida,’ you’d follow them.”

IfsBookHomeKidsWhiteCuttingLove YouMessagesMachinesLibraryStrangerShouldersOver YouComing HomeFloridaBizarreStampsLawnsGrippingAnswering MachinesWearing White
Author:Douglas Coupland
Create image

“Time, Baby - so much, so much time left until the end of my life - sometimes I go crazy at how slowly time passes yet how quickly my body ages. But I shouldn't allow myself to think like this. I have to remind myself that time only frightens me when I think of having to spend it alone. Sometimes I scare myself with how many of my thoughts revolve around making me feel better about sleeping alone in a room.”

ThinkingFeelsEndsSometimesBodyAgeLeftSleepRoomsCrazyBabyScareFeel BetterMy ThoughtsTime PassesTime LeftSleeping Alone
Book:Life After God
Create image

“Give parents the tiniest of confidences and they'll use them as crowbars to jimmy you open and rearrange your life with no perspective. Sometimes I'd just like to mace them. I want to tell them that I envy their upbringings that were so clean, so free of futurelessness. And I want to throttle them for blindly handing over the world to us like so much skid-marked underwear.”

WorldWantGivingSometimesUseParentPerspectiveCleanEnvyUpbringingJimmyUnderwearThrottleHanding Over
Author:Douglas Coupland
Create image

“Truth be told, John said, the one thing in this world I want more than anything else is a great big crowbar, to jimmy myself open and take whatever creature that's sitting inside and shake it clean like a rug and then rinse it in a cold, clear lake like up in Oregon, and then I want to put it under the sun to let it heal and dry and grow and sit and come to consciousness again with a clear and quiet mind.”

WorldWantMindSaidBigsGrowsConsciousnessSunClearOne ThingThis WorldColdTruth IsQuietCreaturesSittingCleanHealDryShakesLakesJimmyOregonTruth Be Told
Book:Miss Wyoming
Create image

“If I've learned anything in twenty-nine years, it's that every human being you see in the course of a day has a problem that's sucking up at least 70 percent of his or her radar. My gift - bad choice of words - is that I can look at you, him, her, them, whoever, and tell right away what is keeping them awake at night: money; feelings of insignificance; overwhelming boredom; evil children; job troubles; or perhaps death, in one of its many costumes, perched in the wings. What surprises me about humanity is that in the end such a narrow range of plights defines our moral lives.”

IfsYearsHumansLooksChildrenI CanEndsFeelingsProblemJobsNightHumanityChoicesCoursesEvilHuman BeingsMoralTroublePercentTwentiesWingsSurpriseNineRangeAwakeBoredomI've LearnedOverwhelmingCostumesRadarNine YearsSurprise MePlightInsignificanceBad ChoicesAwake At NightMoral Life
Author:Douglas Coupland
Create image

“Once he entered my life, I promptly forgot all my years of putting on a brave face while browsing at bookstores until closing time, and of having one, two, three beers while watching crime shows and CNN. I completely forgot the hateful sensation of loneliness, like thirst and hunger together pressing on my stomach.”

YearsTwoShowsTogetherFacesThreeCrimeLonelinessBraveHungerBeerSensationsStomachThirstClosingHatefulBookstoresCnnBrowsingPressing OnBrave FaceClosing Time
Author:Douglas Coupland
Create image

“I cry because the future has once again found its sparkle and has grown a million times larger. And I cry because I am ashamed of how badly I have treated the people I love–of how badly I behaved during my own personal Dark Ages–back before I had a future and someone who cared for me from above. It is like today the sky opened up and only now am I allowed to enter”

PeopleAgeTodayFoundDarkMy OwnMillionsSkyCryTreatedAshamedDark AgesSparkle
Book:Shampoo Planet
Create image

“When you see such photos, you can't help but wonder at just how sweet and sad and innocent all moments of life are rendered by the tripping of a camera's shutter, for at that point the future is still unknown and has yet to hurt us, and also for that brief moment, our poses are accepted as honest.”

StillsMomentsHelpingHurtWonderHonestSweetCamerasAcceptedInnocentShuttersMoments Of LifeBrief MomentsTripping
Book:Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Create image