Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life's cruelest irony.
Douglas CouplandRead
If you write fiction, you have to love your characters. It's like your family. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers must develop a deep emotional connection to their characters, viewing them as family, regardless of personal preferences.
This quote emphasizes the emotional investment that authors must make in their characters when writing fiction. Douglas Coupland suggests that, akin to the complex relationships we have with family members, writers should cultivate love for their characters, even if they don’t necessarily 'like' them. This emotional connection is crucial for creating believable and engaging narratives that resonate with readers.
Themes
FictionCharactersWritingLoveFamily
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to emphasize the importance of character development.
More from Douglas Coupland
All quotes →...we're told by TV and Reader's Digest that a crisis will trigger massive personal change--and that those big changes will make the pain worthwhile. But from what he could see, big change almost never happens. People simply feel lost. They have no idea what to say or do or feel or think. they become messes and tend to remain messes.
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When the world throws you too much information, the only way you can stay sane or survive is to look for pattern recognition. Amidst all the blurs, is there a constellation that emerges, is there a straight line that's emerging?
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I'm not patient - and I'm getting more impatient as I get older - but I am disciplined about writing, and I want that on my tombstone: 'He wasn't patient, but he was disciplined.'
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If you waste five minutes of time a day, over the course of a year that adds up to one full work day. Think of five wasted minutes as a slow-release holiday drug. Savour it.
Douglas CouplandRead
When someone tells you they’ve just bought a house, they might as well tell you they no longer have a personality. You can immediately assume so many things: that they’re locked into jobs they hate; that they’re broke; that they spend every night watching videos; that they’re fifteen pounds overweight; that they no longer listen to new ideas. It’s profoundly depressing.
Douglas CouplandRead
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