As a rule, grifters come from modest backgrounds and have to spend years learning how to dress and behave among the rich. Sam had grown up with money; he'd dated wealthy girls, played American football with wealthy boys, and smoked dope and driven home drunk from smart New York parties. He knew the realities lurking behind their seemingly ideal families. He understood their insecurities and anxieties. He moved among them with serpentine ease precisely because he was one of them. Sly flattery, self-mockery, humorous boastfulness -- Sam's rhetorical arsenal was formidable because it was preconscious. He was able to convey the most comforting message -- we are alike, we are friends, we can trust each other -- in a thousand different ways. He knew what they wanted because it was what he wanted -- and what he'd invented for himself.
Guy Lawrence, Octopus