Douglas Coupland quotes

Before machines the only form of entertainment people really had was relationships.

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.

Forget about being world famous, it's hard enough just getting the automatic doors at the supermarket to acknowledge our existence.

Forget sex or politics or religion, loneliness is the subject that clears out a room.

Workshops and seminars are basically financial speed dating for clueless people.

Flying dreams mean that you're doing the right thing with your life.

When you write, it's just a much more crystalline, compressed version of the voice you think with - though not the one you speak with. I think your writing voice is your laser-guided missile. It's the poetry part of you.

People are pretty forgiving when it comes to other people's families. The only family that ever horrifies you is your own.

Sometimes failure isn't an opportunity in disguise, it's just you.

I was at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver for four years, and I loved it.

The capacity for not feeling lonely can carry a very real price, that of feeling nothing at all.

If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween.

It's very strange that most people don't care if their knowledge of their family history only goes back three generations.

I began doing writing projects and art and design projects to explore a new way of seeing Canada. Roots is one more way of continuing this exploration. I want to present a wide-open Canadian sense of color, adventure, communication and openness that defines our country.

Forget sex or politics or religion, loneliness is the subject that clears out a room.

If cats were double the size they are now, they'd probably be illegal.

Christmas makes everything twice as sad.

Big companies are like marching bands. Even if half the band is playing random notes, it still sounds kind of like music. The concealment of failure is built into them.

Sometimes the best lighting of all is a power failure.

I began doing writing projects and art and design projects to explore a new way of seeing Canada. Roots is one more way of continuing this exploration. I want to present a wide-open Canadian sense of color, adventure, communication and openness that defines our country.

Men won't read any email from a woman that's over 200 words long.

Even when you take a holiday from technology, technology doesn't take a break from you.

The time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself.

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.

Handmade presents are scary because they reveal that you have too much free time.

I think that to acknowledge a new generation is to acknowledge some degree of obsolescence in yourself, and that is very hard to do and often comes with undeniable anger.

A bland smile is like a green light at an intersection, it feels good when you get one, but you forget it the moment you're past it.

The time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself.

If a building looks better under construction than it does when finished, then it's a failure.

Christmas makes everything twice as sad.

Failure is authentic, and because it's authentic, it's real and genuine, and because of that, it's a pure state of being.