The person who needs the other person the least in a relationship is the stronger member.
Doug Coupland

The real killers in the business world aren't the ones who aim for the top, it's the ones who aim for two notches below the top.
Doug Coupland

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

The universe hands you opportunities for a while, and if you don't take them, the universe says to itself, 'Oh I see, this person doesn't like opportunities' and stops giving them to you.
Doug Coupland

There are three things we cry about in life, things that are lost, things that are found, and things that are magnificent.
Doug Coupland

There's a lot to be said for having a small manageable dream.
Doug Coupland

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.
Doug Coupland

There's nothing cure or funny or lovable about being cheap. It's a total turn-off.
Doug Coupland

Thinking you're immortal is weirdly similar to being immortal.
Doug Coupland

Tofu hot dogs are actually scarier than real hot dogs. It's like wanting the worst possible meat product without even the thrill of it actually being meat.
Doug Coupland

Too much free time is certainly a monkey's paw in disguise. Most people can't handle a structureless life.
Doug Coupland

Try not thinking of peeling an orange. Try not imagining the juice running down your fingers, the soft inner part of the peel. The smell. Try and you can't. The brain doesn't process negatives.
Doug Coupland

Unhappiness is something we are never taught about; we are taught to expect happiness, but never a Plan B to use to use when the happiness doesn't arrive.
Doug Coupland

We decided that the French could never write user-friendly software because they're so rude.
Doug Coupland

We live in an era with no historical precedents. History is no longer useful as a tool in helping us understand current changes.
Doug Coupland

We need to be around our families not because we have so many shared experiences to talk about, but instead because they know precisely which subjects to avoid.
Doug Coupland

We want our idols to be dead because it makes death a much less scary place.
Doug Coupland

We're rapidly approaching a world comprised entirely of jail and shopping.
Doug Coupland

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.
Doug Coupland

What if God exists except it turns out he doesn't really like people very much?
Doug Coupland