Douglas Coupland

The thing about the end of the world is that not just the West collapses, the whole world does.

Aliens didn't come down to Earth and give us technology. We invented it ourselves. Therefore it can never be alienating; it can only be an expression of our humanity.

The things worth writing about, and the things worth reading about, are the things that feel almost beyond description at the start and are, because of that, frightening.

Every single moment is a coincidence.

I have trouble with seafood because it tastes like a dock.

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.

Much of what we now consider 'personality' will be explained away as structural and chemical functions of the brain.

The modern economy isn't about the redistribution of wealth, it's about the redistribution of time.

My own experience with being interviewed is mixed. I suppose they're a part of my job, and as I would like readers to connect with my books, I do them. I've also made many lifelong friends whom I first encountered as interviewers — as a writer, they're a terrific way to meet and add smart new people to one's life.

Sometimes I wonder if the world is too interesting and too boring at the same time.

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.

Lottery tickets are a surtax on desperation.

In the future, IKEA will become an ever more spiritual sanctuary. In the future, your dream life will increasingly look like Google street view. Everyone will be feeling the same way as you, and there's some comfort to be found there.

Royalty is either going to do very well with cloning, or it's going to disappear completely.

Depression is when you have lots of love, but no one's taking.

Vancouver is the square root of negative one. Technically it shouldn't exist, but it does. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

You pretend to be more eccentric than you actually are because you fear you are an interchangeable cog.

Cloning is great. If God made the original, then making copies should be fine.

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

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