“I submit that all psychotherapy is manipulation; that as psychiatrists we do not heal people, but manipulate their neuroses into functional modes.”

“To be manipulative is to speak and act in a way that guarantees that we get the response we want to get from other people. So you see, manipulation is how most of us try to get love. Manipulation is how most of us try to get safety… because we do not trust the world to be kind to us. Everyone is manipulative, we are simply more or less aware of that aspect within ourselves.”

“There are basically only two subject matters in all Western culture: sex and death. We do have some ability to manipulate sex nowadays. We have no ability, and never will have, to manipulate death.”

“Manipulated, one manipulates others.”

“Imagination is the manipulation of images in one's head… the rational manipulation… as well as the literary and artistic manipulation.”

“We manipulate fabric.”

“All children are manipulators.”

“The true manipulator never has a reputation for manipulating.”

“We do not know what life is, and yet we manipulate it as if it were an inorganic salt solution…”

“You may be a manipulative bastard sometimes, but you are our manipulative bastard.”