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“Never trust people who don’t have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason.”
We love winners, even though they’re very rarely particularly likeable people. They’re almost always obsessive and selfish and inconsiderate. That doesn’t matter. We forgive them. We like them while they’re winning.
“career woman.” Peter’s friends call her that, some in admiration and some with distaste, but no one calls Peter a “career man.” It strikes a nerve because Kira recognizes the insinuation: you have a “job” so you can provide for your family, whereas a “career” is selfish.
We become what we are told we are.
That’s why it’s so important who you listen to!
simple truth, repeated as often as it is ignored, is that if you tell a child it can do absolutely anything, or that it can’t do anything at all, you will in all likelihood be proven right.
“The only thing the sport gives us are moments. But what the hell is life, Peter, apart from moments?”
Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing.
Kevin turns and heads straight for the bench, swatting away every teammate who tries to hug him, climbs over the boards, and throws himself in David’s arms. “For you!” the boy whispers, and David holds him like he was his own son.
His first wish after every game was always to be allowed to play another one.
“How can anyone possibly experience this without thinking he’s a god?”
you remember when you were little and used to play out on the lake? That was nothing but fun. You didn’t even think, it was just the only thing you wanted to do. It’s still the only thing I want to do. I have no idea what I’m going to do if I can’t do this; hockey’s the only thing I’m any good at. But now… it just feels like…” “Work,” Bobo concludes, without even looking at
They’re fifteen and seventeen years old, and in ten years’ time they’ll remember this evening, when all the others were inside having a party, and they stood out here and became friends.
“I don’t want to, not tonight, I’ve nev…,” she whispers. “Of course you want to,” he insists. She flares up. “Are you deaf or what? I said no!” His grip on her wrists tightens, first almost imperceptibly, then to the point where it hurts.
For the perpetrator, rape lasts just a matter of minutes. For the victim, it never stops.
Profound
“That most people don’t do what we tell them to. They do what we let them get away with.”
“What you think you saw…,” Kevin begins. He’s not threatening. Not hard or commanding. He’s almost whispering. “You know what women are like.”
The way boys talk about girls is a culture of rape
“The team is greater than the individual” is just a cliché for people who don’t understand sports; for those who do, it’s a painful truth because it hurts to live in accordance with it. Submitting to a role you don’t want, doing a crap job in silence, playing on defense instead of getting to score goals and be the star. When you can accept the worst aspects of your teammates because you love the collective, that’s when you’re a team player.
Amat is amazed at how straightforward it is. Staying silent in return for being allowed to join in.
“Right now, Kevin has only hurt me. But if I talk, I’ll be letting him hurt everyone I love as well. I can’t handle that.”
This is so deep and profound, yet so disturbing and heartbreaking. It's another reason women dont tell.
that Maya finally decided to tell the truth about Kevin, not because she wanted to protect herself, but because she wanted to protect others. And that she already knew, as she stood there at the window that morning, what the town would do to her.
That may have been how they survived, Kira realizes: thanks to their ability not to fall apart at the same time.
Her parents turn toward her, and they will remember this moment. The very last moment of happiness and security.
Nothing will ever be the same after they know.
The fifteen-year-old girl closes her eyes. Opens her mouth. Speaks. Tells them everything.
That’s why no one asks what the boy did; as soon as the girl starts to talk they interrupt her instead with questions about what she did.
This is a serious allegation, they remind her, as if it’s the allegation that’s the problem.
Even then, in the police station in Hed, she knew she would survive this. Even then she knew that her mom and dad wouldn’t. Parents don’t heal.
“Concentrate on the things you can change.”
They’ll be able to deal with it. That’s what he’s afraid of. That that’s what’s going to make the rest of the world go on thinking that everything is okay.
In every time and every place, I’ve come across men who blame their own stupidity on crap they themselves have invented. ‘Religion causes wars,’ ‘guns
kill people,’ it’s all the same old bullshit!”
Fucking men! YOU’RE the problem! Religion doesn’t fight, guns don’t kill, and you need to be very fucking clear that hockey has never raped anyone! But do you know who do? Fight and kill and rape?” Sune clears his throat. “Men?” “MEN! It’s always fucking men!”
It’s always men!
but not one single person tells them that when a girl says no, it means NO. And the problem with this town is not only that a boy raped a girl, but that everyone is pretending that he DIDN’T do it.
why he only wondered if it was Kevin or Amat who was telling the truth. Why Maya’s word wasn’t enough.
Wow!
There’s a hockey puck on a gravestone in Beartown. The writing is small, so that all the words can fit. Still the bravest bastard I know. Beside the puck lies a watch.
“You won’t get a better instrument than this for five thousand. She’ll still love it in ten years’ time!” the store clerk promised.
