Douglas Coupland Quotes

Aliens didn't come down to Earth and give us technology. We invented it ourselves. Therefore it can never be alienating; it can only be an expression of our humanity.

Douglas Coupland

• Earth
• Technology
• Humanity

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• Working as a musician, I have to constantly generate new material, so school keeps me sharp. Reading and writing all the time helps me to be a better songwriter.

  

  Kate Voegele
  • Time
  • Writing
  • School

• I try and take the commonplace - and some of it is writ large, like death - take the commonplace and make it universally resonant, revelatory, and beautiful at the same time.

  

  Sally Mann
  • Time
  • Death
  • Beautiful

• I was a cleaner while at university. The job wasn't bad, but I was amazed by how badly cleaners are treated - how disrespected they are by the people they work for.

  

  Tamsin Greig
  • People
  • Work
  • Job

• I have to remember that winning an Oscar is an almost unbelievable goal and that it is an honour just to be nominated.

  

  Daniel Barber
  • Remember
  • Winning
  • Goal

• I haven't actually studied acting at all.

  

  Kat Dennings
  • Acting
  • Actually
  • Studied

• Really? Worst film you ever saw. Well, my next one will be better. Hello. Hello.

  

  Ed Wood
  • Better
  • Worst
  • Hello

• As a musician myself, it annoys the hell out of me to watch an actor trying to play a guitar out of time with the music.

  

  Sam Palladio
  • Time
  • Music
  • Trying

• The trick of this thing and the beauty of this thing is that it's a cowboy movie first and then stuff happens. Even after stuff happens it doesn't change - it hasn't suddenly changed into another kind of movie. It's still a cowboy movie. And that's what's incredible about it because nobody has done that before, that's new territory.

  

  Harrison Ford
  • Done
  • Movie
  • Change

• Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.

  

  Walter Bagehot
  • Long
  • Honor
  • Where

• I really don't like going out anymore. I used to love it, but now it's not fun. I'd rather have friends come over and hot have to worry about crazy people taking pictures.

  

  Paris Hilton
  • People
  • Friends
  • Fun

• New Zealanders have conventions and pleasantries, but we are direct. We are encouraged to be transparent with our behavior and not to employ passive aggression.

  

  Daniel Gillies
  • New
  • Behavior
  • Passive

• Thrillers provide the reader with a safe escape into a dangerous world where the stakes are as high as can be imagined with unpredictable outcomes. It's a perfect genre in which to explore hard issues of good and evil, a mirror that allows the reader to see both the good and not so good in themselves.

  

  Ted Dekker
  • World
  • Good
  • High

• You do not build your own houses, nor make your own garments, nor bake your own bread, simply because you know that if you were to attempt all these things they would all be more or less ill done.

  

  Felix Adler
  • Done
  • Know
  • Bread

• To demonstrate this simultaneity is by no means trivial, because it may for example happen that the product nucleus always forms in an activated state at first.

  

  Walther Bothe
  • May
  • First
  • Example

• Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • Happy
  • Man
  • Imagination

• This solution may not appeal to our human pride, but the problem is that our human pride in itself is sinful.

  

  Walter Lang
  • May
  • Problem
  • Pride

• Any time anyone makes a comic book into a movie, in some way, I think they have to kill the comic book.

  

  Sam Raimi
  • Time
  • Book
  • Movie

• A few years ago, there were requests to me, Can we make this? I said that I have no rights. Contact the Hitchcock estate, which won't release it for a remake.

  

  Patricia Highsmith
  • Rights
  • Estate
  • Requests

• I decided when I was a kid that I would only go out of the house if I felt good enough to be bothered. Could I be interrupted at dinner? Am I in the mood? If I am, I go out. If I'm not, I don't! So, it's the art of deciding what the truth of your job is, and what you can and cannot handle. You can design your stresses.

  

  John Travolta
  • Good
  • Art
  • Job

• The confidence and respect shown by my countrymen in calling me to be the Chief Magistrate of a Republic holding a high rank among the nations of the earth have inspired me with feelings of the most profound gratitude.

  

  Zachary Taylor
  • High
  • Earth
  • Me

• For every man that ever walked the Earth, except maybe the sociopaths, when it comes to talking to pretty girls... it's just stark terror.

  

  Chuck Lorre
  • Pretty
  • Earth

• Under the dominion of the priests our earth became the ascetic planet; a squalid den careering through space, peopled by discontented and arrogant creatures, who were disgusted with life, abhorred their globe as a vale of tears, and who in their envy and hatred of beauty and joy did themselves as much harm as possible.

  

  Georg Brandes
  • Life
  • Earth
  • Space

• There definitely will be flying cars, but whether there'll be flying cars for most people to use, it'll probably take a long time to straighten everything out, all the rules and hassles. It'll take a while to figure out how to keep people from crashing into each other.

  

  Zack Greinke
  • People
  • Time
  • Long

• Aliens didn't come down to Earth and give us technology. We invented it ourselves. Therefore it can never be alienating; it can only be an expression of our humanity.

  

  Douglas Coupland
  • Earth
  • Technology
  • Humanity