Quotessence
Home / Authors / Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsThinkingWorldFeelsWayWantYearsHumansEndsKnowsFeelingsMomentsLooksPersonsWonderTryingAgeGivingNeeds

Famous Douglas Coupland Quotes

“When you are young, you always expect that the world is going to end. And then you get older and the world still chugs along and you are forced to re-evaluate your stance on the apocalypse as well as your own relationship to time and death. You realize that the world will indeed continue, with or without you, and the pictures you see in your head. So you try to understand the pictures instead.”

WorldTryingWellsStillsEndsYoungRealizingApocalypseWithout YouEvaluateStance
Book:Life After God
Create image

“One of my own stray childhood fears had been to wonder what a whale might feel like had it been born and bred in captivity, then released into the wild-into its ancestral sea-its limited world instantly blowing up when cast into the unknowable depths, seeing strange fish and tasting new waters, not even having a concept of depth, not knowing the language of any whale pods it might meet. It was my fear of a world that would expand suddenly, violently, and without rules or laws: bubbles and seaweed and storms and frightening volumes of dark blue that never end.”

WorldFeelsEndsMightLawLanguageWaterBornDarkMy OwnWonderKnowingSeeingSeaChildhoodStrangeConceptsBlueDepthCastsFishesStormBubblesFrighteningNot KnowingVolumeWhalesTastingCaptivitySeaweedBlowing UpDark Blue
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

“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

“I think it takes an amazing amount of energy to convince oneself that the Forever Person isn't just around the corner. In the end I believe we never do convince ourselves. I know that I found it increasingly hard to maintain the pose of emotional self-sufficiency lying on my bed and sitting at my desk, watching the gulls cartwheeling in the clouds over the bridges, cradling myself in my own arms, breathing warm chocolate-and-vodka breath on a rose I had found on a street corner, trying to force it to bloom.”

ThinkingKnowsTryingBelievePersonsEndsSelfHardLyingFoundEnergyForceI BelieveMy OwnForeverStreetsEmotionalArmsAmountBedSittingBreathsRoseCloudsOneselfCornersWarmBreathingBridgesConvinceChocolateDesksAround The CornerSelf SufficiencySufficiencyVodkaStreet CornersGulls
Book:Life After God
Create image