“Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation.”

“Words have the greatest power to inflict everlasting pain. Words have the greatest power to heal the soul.”

“The conversation was dangerous for it was designed to incite physical violence and, if left to continue, might have succeeded. But the pain Ranulf first wanted to inflict was humiliation, and that could not be achieved with fists.It required intellect.And maybe a slight emotional push.”

“In comparison to what I've suffered from myself, the humiliation and suffering inflicted on me by others vanishes into insignificance.”

“Abstention, self-control, self-inflicted pain: these are forms of power - about the only kind you can have when you're a fourteen-year-old girl, by the way.”

“Well I don’t know about you, but when I recall childhood pain, I don’t recall the pains of toothache, a thrashed backside, broken bones, stubbed toes, gashed knees or twisted ankles – I recall the pains of loneliness, boredom, abandonment, humiliation, rejection and fear. Those are the pains on which I might and, still sometimes do, dwell, and those pains, almost without exception, were inflicted on me by other children and by myself.”