I knew from school that the world was made of atoms and molecules, and we knew scientists were out there somewhere splitting and spinning and bouncing and breaking down matter to the smallest building blocks of the universe, but all I wanted to know was why there were building blocks in the first place and what was building with them. What wasn’t and wanted to be? What is this?

That was my big question: What is this?

To me, it felt like we were all living in a snow globe and people in white lab coats were out there just counting snowflakes. I didn’t want data. I wanted to bask in the stomach-dropping, tingling sensation of unknowing and soak in something more basic—namely, “What the fuck are we doing in this snow globe?”

pete holmes in his book comedy sex god