“All friendships are negotiations of power.”

“Friendship is constant in all other thingsSave in the office and affairs of love.Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.Let every eye negotiate for itself,And trust no agent; for beauty is a witchAgainst whose charms faith melteth into blood.”

“I thought I made it clear that I was a sure thing, but he left without getting any."Maybe Hector's holding out for a better deal, Sam."That never occurred to me. "Negotiating?"You negotiated with all your other dominants. You call it power exchange. Use your power."I ducked my head. "I don't have any power."Then what the hell are you exchanging?”

“For the good of all, I say: Be careful, the brutality of the world must not be more powerful or attractive than love and friendship.”

“I'm not good at having friends. I mean, I can make myself useful to people. I can fit in. I get invited to parties and I can sit at any table I want in the cafeteria.But actually trusting someone when they have nothing to gain from me just doesn't make sense.All friendships are negotiations of power.”

“Understand: the task of an activist is not to negotiate systems of power with as much personal integrity as possible--it's to dismantle those systems.”