Jordan Rock

“Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“Beg your pardon," the gunslinger said. "I was wool-gathering.”
― Stephen King, The Dark Tower

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
― Stephen King, The Gunslinger

“What do you despise? By this are you truly known.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune