Charlie Barley

“Is there anything gayer than refusing to ask someone out, then holding them personally responsible for the silent, ever-increasing intensity of your feelings until they tell you casually they’re going on a date with someone who asked them out, then exploding with despair? Almost certainly, but no one will tell me what it is.”
― Daniel Mallory Ortberg, Something That May Shock and Discredit You

“I don't hate the English and I don't know do I love the Irish. But I love him. I'm sure of that now. And he's my country.”
― Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys

“A flash of his grin. "I'll see you won't fall in," he said and the arm went round Jim's shoulder.
Gently this time, though still the touch shot through Jim's clothes, through his skin even. It was this way whenever their bodies met, if limping he brushed against him or laughing he squeezed his arm. The touch charged through like a sputtering tram-wire until it wasn't Doyler he felt but what Doyler touched, which was himself. This is my shoulder, this my leg. And he did not think he had felt himself before, other than in pain or in sin.
"Are we straight so?"
"Aye, we're straight," said Jim.
"Straight as a rush, so we are.”
― Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys

“Trying not to transition was the hardest work in the world. The nicest thing about transition was letting go.”
― Daniel Mallory Ortberg, Something That May Shock and Discredit You