“I think it takes an amazing amount of energy to convince oneself that the Forever Person isn't just around the corner. In the end I believe we never do convince ourselves. I know that I found it increasingly hard to maintain the pose of emotional self-sufficiency lying on my bed and sitting at my desk, watching the gulls cartwheeling in the clouds over the bridges, cradling myself in my own arms, breathing warm chocolate-and-vodka breath on a rose I had found on a street corner, trying to force it to bloom.”
“I think it takes an amazing amount of energy to convince oneself that the Forever Person isn't just around the corner. In the end I believe we never do convince ourselves. I know that I found it increasingly hard to maintain the pose of emotional self-sufficiency lying on my bed and sitting at my desk, watching the gulls cartwheeling in the clouds over the bridges, cradling myself in my own arms, breathing warm chocolate-and-vodka breath on a rose I had found on a street corner, trying to force it to bloom.”
Douglas Coupland
“One of my own stray childhood fears had been to wonder what a whale might feel like had it been born and bred in captivity, then released into the wild-into its ancestral sea-its limited world instantly blowing up when cast into the unknowable depths, seeing strange fish and tasting new waters, not even having a concept of depth, not knowing the language of any whale pods it might meet. It was my fear of a world that would expand suddenly, violently, and without rules or laws: bubbles and seaweed and storms and frightening volumes of dark blue that never end”
Douglas Coupland, Girlfriend in a Coma“When future archaeologists dig up the remains of California, they're going to find all of those gyms their scary-looking gym equipment, and they're going to assume that we were a culture obsessed with torture.”
Douglas Coupland“The capacity for not feeling lonely can carry a very real price, that of feeling nothing at all.”
Douglas Coupland“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.”
Douglas Coupland“Men won't read any email from a woman that's over 200 words long.”
Douglas Coupland“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.”
Douglas Coupland“Before machines the only form of entertainment people really had was relationships.”
Douglas Coupland“The person who needs the other person the least in a relationship is the stronger member.”
Douglas Coupland“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.”
Douglas Coupland“Canadians can easily 'pass for American' as long as we don't accidentally use metric measurements or apologize when hit by a car.”
Douglas CouplandAll in One Creative & Marketing Platform to tell stories at scale
