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Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland Quotes

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Famous Douglas Coupland Quotes

“When the world throws you too much information, the only way you can stay sane or survive is to look for pattern recognition. Amidst all the blurs, is there a constellation that emerges, is there a straight line that's emerging. I think as long as you keep your mind in the palce where you're actively looking for patterns, you may not be safe, but you're going to feel safe, I think.”

ThinkingWorldWayFeelsMindLooksMayLongLinesToo MuchInformationSafePatternsRecognitionSaneEmergingConstellationsStraight LinesBlurToo Much Information
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“You really have to wonder why we even bother to get up in the morning. I mean, really: Why work? Simply to buy more stuff? That's just not enough. Look at us all. What's the common assumption that got us all from there to here? What makes us deserve the ice cream and running shoes and wool Italian suits we have? I mean, I see all of us trying so hard to acquire so much stuff, but I can't help but feeling that we didn't merit it.”

TryingLooksMeanI CanHardEnoughHelpingFeelingsRunningStuffCommonWonderMorningDeserveShoesSuitsGet UpIceBotherMeritAssumptionAcquireItalianCreamIce CreamWoolTrying So HardRunning Shoes
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“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
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“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.”

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“If you look at life as a whole, we have to admit life's good where we live. But in an evil Twilight Zone kind of way there's nothing else to choose. In the old days there was always a Bohemia or a creative under-world to join if the mainstream life wasn't your bag - or a life of crime, or even religion.And now there's only the system. All other options have evaporated. For most people it's the System or what... death? There's nothing. There's no way out now.”

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Author:Douglas Coupland
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