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Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland Quotes

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Famous Douglas Coupland Quotes

“I wouldn't mind if the consumer culture went poof! overnight because then we'd all be in the same boat and life wouldn't be so bad, mucking about with the chickens and feudalism and the like. But you know what would be absolutely horrible. The worst? ... If, as we were all down on earth wearing rags and husbanding pigs inside abandoned Baskin-Robbins franchises, I were to look up in the sky and see a jet -- with just one person inside even -- I'd go berserk. I'd go crazy. Either everyone slides back into the Dark Ages or no one does.”

IfsKnowsMindLooksPersonsDoeWould BeAgeEarthCultureDarkSkyCrazyWorstHorribleBoatConsumersLook UpJust OneChickensAbandonedPigsSlidesJetDark AgesRagsFeudalismBerserkConsumer Culture
Author:Douglas Coupland
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“A few years ago it dawned on me that everybody past a certain age ... pretty much constantly dreams of being able to escape from their lives. They don't want to be who they are any more. They want out. This list includes Thurston Howell the Third, Ann-Margret, the cat members of Rent, Václav Havel, space shuttle astronauts and Snuffleupagus. It's universal.”

WantYearsDreamAgeAblePastCertainSpaceMembersYears AgoCatThirdsUniversalListsAstronautSpace Shuttle
Book:The Gum Thief: A Novel
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“Our conversations are never easy, but as I-we-get older, we are finding that our conversations must bespoken. A need burns inside us to share with others what we are feeling Beyond a certain age, sincerity ceases to feel pornographic. It is as though the coolness that marked out youth is itself a type of retrovirus that can only leave you feeling empty. Full of holes.”

NeedsFeelsFeelingsAgeCertainEasyShareYouthTypeConversationFindingsEmptyCeaseHolesSincerityCoolnessFeeling Empty
Author:Douglas Coupland
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“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
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“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
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“Post-adolescent Expert Syndrome The tendency of young people around the age of eighteen, males especially, to become altruistic experts on everything, a state of mind required by nature to ensure warriors who are willing to die with pleasure on the battlefield. Also the reason why religions recruit kamikaze pilots and suicide bombers almost exclusively from the 18-21 range. "Kyle, I never would have guessed that when you were up in your bedroom playing World of Warcraft all through your teens, you were, in fact, becoming an expert on the films of Jean-Luc Godard.”

PeopleWorldMindStatesReasonFactsAgeFilmYoungDiesPleasureWillingBecomingSuicideMalesTendenciesWarriorPostsRangeReason WhyExpertsState Of MindPilotsTeensBedroomBattlefieldsEighteenSyndromesRecruitBombersWilling To DieSuicide BombersWorld Of Warcraft
Author:Douglas Coupland
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“Do you think we enjoy hearing about your brand-new million-dollar home when we can barely afford to eat Kraft Dinner sandwiches in our own grimy little shoe boxes and we're pushing thirty? A home you won in a genetic lottery, I might add, sheerly by dint of your having been born at the right time in history? You'd last about ten minutes if you were my age these days.”

IfsThinkingLittlesHomeMightAgeLastsEnjoyBornMillionsMinutesTenDollarsAddShoesBoxesHearingDinnerBrandsThese DaysThirtyPushingRight TimeSandwichesMillion DollarsLotteryBrand NewBaby Boomer
Author:Douglas Coupland
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