
Downtown Owl: A Novel

Sleeping pills help people reach sleep; fatal familial insomnia makes sleep unreachable. The protein in Alma’s brain had changed, and it could not be changed back.
Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
As far as Horace could decipher, destiny was a concept that forced you to live a certain kind of life on purpose, even though you were already living that life by accident. And that seemed immoral, not to mention stupid. Why would existence be designed as a redundant system? Destiny made God seem like an unconfident engineer.
Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
—What difference would that make? You seem to think there is a big distinction between knowing things and not knowing things. There isn’t. There’s a difference, but it’s negligible. Like, I knew about Medora, and you didn’t. But what does that mean, really? What does it indicate? —Well, you
Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
Tonight. You can meet my boyfriend. Well, he’s actually not my boyfriend—I’m married and I don’t cheat on my husband, but I still have a boyfriend. You know what I mean? You know what I mean. You know what I mean. So if you have an extra liver, you might want to throw it into your glove box. I might need to chew on it.”
Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
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Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
Smoking made him amorous and solipsistic.
Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
Their misplaced adoration makes them seem foolish and immature, so you cannot reciprocate their respect. It instantaneously makes the relationship unbalanced. And this imbalance makes you feel guilty, so you start to unconsciously resent the idolization. Over time, you find yourself hating people for loving you too much, which seems like a terrible
... See moreChuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
Today’s afternoon coffee was stronger than usual, depositing black acid bitterness into the blood of its disciples. It was an entertaining anomaly. The old men embraced their caffeinated anger. It felt good.
Chuck Klosterman • Downtown Owl: A Novel
Most of the time they didn’t even realize they were rich; almost without exception, they wrongly viewed themselves as middle-class. But there’s no such thing as middle-class. The middle class does not exist. If you believe you are part of the middle class, it just means you’re rich and insecure or poor and misinformed.