Quotessence
Home / Authors / Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsThinkingWorldFeelsWayWantYearsHumansEndsKnowsFeelingsMomentsLooksPersonsWonderTryingAgeGivingNeeds

Famous Douglas Coupland Quotes

“Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound—people such as my boring brother-in-law, a hearty type so concerned with normality and fitting in that he eliminates any possibility of uniqueness for himself and his own personality. I wonder if some day, when he is older, he will wake up and the deeper part of him will realize that he has never allowed himself to truly exist, and he will cry with regret and shame and grief.”

PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsSometimesLawRealizingGriefWonderCryPossibilityBrotherRegretTypePersonalityConcernedWake UpShameProfoundBoringDeeperUniquenessIn-lawsFittingSaddestNormalityHeartyBrother In Law
Book:Life After God
Create image

“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
Author:Douglas Coupland
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

“And then I felt sad because I realized that once people are broken in certain ways, they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened.”

PeopleIfsWayLifeYoungCertainTurnsGrowsFeltChallengesWonderBreakFailingHappenedSadnessBrokenDepressionSurpriseI RealizedLovelyFixedLife LessonPeople In Your Life
Book:Life After God
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

“And then sometimes I think the people to feel saddest for are people who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or became numb to the sensation of wonder – people who closed the doors that leads us into the secret world – or who had the doors closed for them by time and neglect and decisions made in times of weakness.”

PeopleThinkingWorldFeelsMadeSometimesLostDecisionSecretWonderDoorsWeaknessNeglectSensationsNumbSaddestDecisions Made
Book:Life After God
Create image