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Men may be rivals, opponents in their fortunes, and yet be friends in their hearts and fair towards each other's worth; but woman, the instant she is rivaled, becomes unjust.

A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.

I think that women definitely have a special bond as friends that is hard to describe to men, and we don't often see that portrayed narratively.

There was a time when I thought dudes had friendship all figured out. The focus on eating things in front of giant screens, pretending to punch one another, competing over who can utter the grossest and most profane personal insults imaginable - this struck me as the very apex of human social exchange.

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.

Men and women can absolutely be friends, and that's what we need to be. Part of the problem is that we aren't friends enough. Our relationships are negotiations, and that is not friendship.

Lots of male friendships begin as a cheeky snog. Or a little undercurrent of flirtation.

Friends confront each other sometimes, and sometimes the friendship lasts, and sometimes it doesn't.