Mairead

“Jesper’s mind emptied. He wasn’t thinking of what had happened before or what might happen next. There was only the reality of Wylan’s mouth, the press of his lips, then the fine bones of his neck, the silky feel of his curls as Jesper cupped his nape and drew him nearer.
This was the kiss he’d been waiting for. It was a gunshot. It was prairie fire. It was the spin of Makker’s Wheel. Jesper felt the pounding of his heart—or was it Wylan’s?—like a stampede in his chest, and the only thought in his head was a happy, startled, Oh.
Slowly, inevitably, they broke apart. “Wylan,” Jesper said, looking into the wide blue sky of his eyes, “I really hope we don’t die.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“We are naked together in locker rooms four times a day and alone together on the bus for God knows how many hours, and it is ingrained in us that our teammates are our brothers. We are expected to have each other's back, to lie for each other if we have to. Civilians wouldn't understand it. When we look around the room, we see twenty clones of ourselves and we all know we are better than everyone else. This is our culture. We breed lions, and how do you tell a lion to stop being a lion?”
― Rick Westhead, We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada's Troubled Hockey Culture

“Perhaps they were right putting love into books. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else.”
― William Faulkner

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
― Jack London