Douglas Coupland Quotes
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At what point in our lives do we stop blurring? When do we become crisp individuals? What must we do in order to end these fuzzy identities - to clarify just who it is we really are?
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Veal-Fattening Pen: Small, cramped office workstations built of fabric-covered disassemblable wall partitions and inhabited by junior staff members. Named after the small preslaughter cubicles used by the cattle industry.
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I've had maybe 20 jobs, big and small, and I've never hated any of them. At the same time, the moment the learning curve flattened, I was out of there.
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All events became omens; I lost the ability to take anything literally.
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If a building looks better under construction than it does when finished, then it's a failure.
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If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween.
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I was so beautiful when I was young. And I took so few photos because I felt so skinny and ugly. I wish I'd just taken a few more shots.
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If nothing else, we simply get used to being alive.
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Storytelling is ultimately a creative act of pattern recognition. Through characters, plot and setting, a writer creates places where previously invisible truths become visible. Or the storyteller posits a series of dots that the reader can connect.
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Human beings are the only animal that thinks they change who they are simply by moving to a different place. Birds migrate, but it's not quite the same thing.
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Time perception is very much about how you sequence your activities, how many activities you layer overtop of others, and the types of gaps, if any, you leave in between activities.
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I grew up in airports and on air bases. I know what flying and airports can be. And most airports make me feel like we're about three per cent better than ants. Especially U.S. airports. They're zoos. All civility is gone.
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If you’re an incredibly famous rich person who does more in one day than I do in a month, does your perception of time’s passing go slower or faster than it does for me?
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If you can control your emotions, chances are you don’t have too many.
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The modern economy isn't about the redistribution of wealth, it's about the redistribution of time.
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I had a lot of really terrible advice early in my writing career, and I cheesed off people without even knowing it, all the while thinking I was implementing good advice. Well, what can you do about it? Next.
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Workshops and seminars are basically financial speed dating for clueless people.
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It's sort of a law of the art world: The stuff that grows in importance is only the stuff you bought because it wowed you.
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I'm not a hoarder, I'm a collector: if you have something you like, every time you see it, you have a little happy hit.
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There's nothing at the center of what we do.
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Technology favors horrible people.
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Americans are a quarter of a billion people who have almost nothing in common except for the fact they've been told they have lots in common.
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If someone decides to be a musician now, it means because there is no hope of money at the end of it, it means they really want to be a musician. And if someone is writing now, there is no hope for money at the end of it.
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People who advocate simplicity have money in the bank; the money came first, not the simplicity. (from inside the cover)