Give parents the tiniest of confidences and they'll use them as crowbars to jimmy you open and rearrange your life with no perspective. Douglas Coupland More Quotes by Douglas Coupland More Quotes From Douglas Coupland Destiny is what we work toward. The future doesn't exist yet. Fate is for losers! Douglas Coupland fate loser destiny Only the disenfranchised can party with abandon. Douglas Coupland disenfranchised abandon party Compromise is said to be the way of the world and yet I find myself feeling sick trying to accept what it has done to me. Douglas Coupland sick feelings trying I wouldn't mind if the consumer culture went poof! overnight because then we'd all be in the same boat and life wouldn't be so bad, mucking about with the chickens and feudalism and the like. But you know what would be absolutely horrible. The worst? ... If, as we were all down on earth wearing rags and husbanding pigs inside abandoned Baskin-Robbins franchises, I were to look up in the sky and see a jet -- with just one person inside even -- I'd go berserk. I'd go crazy. Either everyone slides back into the Dark Ages or no one does. Douglas Coupland crazy dark pigs I kind of wonder if creativity is all morphing into one big thing that's not even art, but something universal and bigger. Douglas Coupland creativity kind art Most people have no idea how to politely answer a phone. The English do, and it's been their only major business advantage for the past two centuries. Douglas Coupland two past ideas 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? Douglas Coupland growth morning mean Our conversations are never easy, but as I-we-get older, we are finding that our conversations must bespoken. A need burns inside us to share with others what we are feeling Beyond a certain age, sincerity ceases to feel pornographic. It is as though the coolness that marked out youth is itself a type of retrovirus that can only leave you feeling empty. Full of holes. Douglas Coupland age feelings needs You spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Douglas Coupland being-old young This was not a good idea coming home for Christmas. I'm too old. Years ago, coming back from schools or trips, I always expected some sort of new perspective or fresh insight about the family on returning. That doesn't happen anymore-the days of revelation about my parents, at least, are over... its time to move on. I think we'd all appreciate that. Douglas Coupland home school moving CONSENSUS TERRORISM:The process that decides in- office attitudes and behavior. Douglas Coupland terrorism office attitude You can never become rich unless you like rich people. Douglas Coupland rich-people rich people Where does personality end and brain damage begin? Douglas Coupland personality doe brain When we constantly ask for miracles, we're unraveling the fabric of the world. A world of continuous miracles would not be a world, it would be a cartoon. Douglas Coupland miracle cartoon would-be When Donald Duck traded his wings for arms, was he trading up or trading down? Douglas Coupland arms ducks wings Please stop putting quotes from Nietzsche at the end of your emails. Five years ago you were laughing your guts out over American Pie 2. What — suddenly you’ve magically turned into Noam Chomsky? Douglas Coupland pie laughing years What exactly is it that humans do that is specifically human? There has to be something. How odd it is for billions of people to be alive, yet not one of them is really quite sure of what makes people people. Douglas Coupland exactly-is alive people Dreams don't come true. Dreams die. Dreams get compromised. Dreams end up dealing meth in a booth at the back of the Olive Garden. Dreams choke to death on bay leaves. Dreams get spleen cancer. Douglas Coupland cancer garden dream Your body isn't just a body. It's an ecosystem. Douglas Coupland environment ecosystems body 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. Douglas Coupland regret grief brother
