Douglas Coupland Quotes
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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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Everyone should have a tailor. David Wilkes, the guy who does my stuff, is like, 'Well you're a writer - do you want a special pen compartment or something?' Bespoke: That's the term you want to get out there.
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I think most people either forget or don't know that Microsoft only hires people with I.Q.'s well over 130.
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I think half the people who get married now have met online. If I think about all the people in my life who married - they met online, online, online. And it makes sense if you think about it, because you fill out this form of 35 things that really define you and - bam - look, you've got two people who match. It works.
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There's much to be said for feeling numb. Time passes more quickly. You eat less, and because numbness encourages laziness, you do fewer things, good or bad, and the world's probably a better place for it.
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I miss the silliness of the Nineties. What would society be like if 9/11 never happened? If that silliness was extended forever?
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Historical Overdosing: to live in a period of time when too much seems to happen. Major symptoms include addiction to newspapers, magazines, and TV news broadcasts.
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There's nothing at the center of what we do.
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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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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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For many people, myself included, the end of the world is happening all the time! It is a form of criticality that paradoxically gives us hope for change and improvement.
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We barely have enough time to figure out who we are and then we become bitter and isolated as we age.
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We were never supposed to live until 40. We were built to self-destruct at 30, whether from cancer or mental illness. We're all going way beyond our expiration date.
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I'm a visual thinker. Research tells us that only 20 per cent of people think visually. So what about the other 80 per cent? Don't they think in pictures? I mean if you imagine washing and preparing potatoes you visualise the process, right?
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Making eye contact with adults while dressed as a clown is risky.
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There are three things we cry about in life, things that are lost, things that are found, and things that are magnificent.
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Writing is largely about time, while visual art is largely about space.
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Sometimes the best lighting of all is a power failure.
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Handmade presents are scary because they reveal that you have too much free time.
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Telling people they look relaxed makes them look relaxed.
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You don't believe magic is possible in lives lived within traditional boundaries.
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Forget sex or politics or religion, loneliness is the subject that clears out a room.
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Flying dreams mean that you're doing the right thing with your life.
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Headwise, I always kind of knew that everyone goes grey in our family very early - and I was like, it works for me. I started growing my beard, and it changes the shape of your skull and your face, and I started seeing my mother's side of the family in myself for the first time.