"I don't think many people roll over in bed after a delicious fuck and say, 'My god, I have Patrick Califia to thank for this,' but if they knew better, they would. Califia's work has revolutionized the way we talk about sex, the way we enjoy sex, and our political awareness of how sex touches us in a million intimate ways. He ought to be getting a pension from every lover in America, and I hope the people who realize that will come to his aid at this difficult time."

-Susie Bright, editor of Best American Erotica series, and author of many books including How to Write a Dirty Story and Full Exposoure.

"I lived through the so-called 'Lesbian Sex Wars,' that period in the early 1980s when some women were trying to expand and explore sexually, and lots of other women were giving them shit for it. I explored Pat Califia's writings with some secrecy and trepidation, but what I found there helped me past worrying what other people thought about me and my sexual choices, what other dykes (even my girlfriend) might say. Pat then (and Patrick now) so incisively and fearlessly explores sexual possibilities that new doors open for anyone who reads white-hot Califia porn or knife-edge Califia theory. I am quite certain I would not be who I am today, either erotically, or as a writer, without Califia as an inspiration—and there are very few people about whom I can make such a statement. More than anyone else, Califia helped me understand that queer politics and radical sex are for everyone, and that using your own experience as a basis for your work is not only acceptable, it's the very best way to make your work authentic, deep, and a resource for others. As far as I'm concerned, Patrick is one of our most important and crucial cultural treasures, and should be a hero to anyone of any gender or orientation who wants a sex life not shaped and limited by somebody else."

- Carol Queen, sex educator, author of The Leather Daddy and the Femme, Exhibitionism for the Shy and many more.

"Patrick Califia is the most intelligent writer we have. He is fearless and articulate and a meticulous researcher. He cuts through all bullshit to say the things others can't—because they are too polite, too timid, or too invested in the party line. He functions as the conscience of our community of queer people, leaving no scared cow untipped."

- Felice Newman, Cleis Press, author of The Whole Lesbian Sex Book.

"Macho Sluts became my bible in reinventing my sexual identity, and I guess at that age I had no real need to appreciate the irony that this book by a bad-ass San Francisco leather dyke was helping me understand in meaningful terms what it took, for me, to be a straight man. Like a very few other books in my life—Bowles' The Sheltering Sky and Townsend's THE LEATHERMAN'S HANDBOOK being about the only examples -- Macho Sluts showed up in my life at exactly the right time to totally transform me and, in so doing, utterly transcended itself, turning in my mind from a work of literature to what resembles, somewhat suspiciously, a religious icon. I will always have a soft spot for it, as I would even if it wasn't such a damn good collection that I read and enjoy again and again and again.

"Eventually I got to meet and work with Pat, who soon became Patrick, and found him to be not only one of the most reliable, insightful and challenging writers I've ever edited, but also a great pleasure to work with. As an editor at Good Vibrations, I knew that if I had an army of Patrick Califias I could take the world back from the right-wingers with not a shot fired. Copy comes in from Patrick Califia and it sizzles off the page, whether it's a complex analysis of sexual politics or a sleazy piece of down-and-dirty porn. Patrick's writing in all genres is so meticulously thought out and flawlessly constructed that it leaves me both haunted by the fact that I will never be that good a writer and inspired to try my damnedest. I can honestly say that there is no writer whose work I anticipate with greater pleasure. His newest book Speaking Sex To Power is, if anything, even more complex, challenging and inspiring than Public Sex, which I have long considered one of the very best essay collections ever published on any topic. When it comes to sexuality, there's no one doing better work."

-Thomas Roche, marketing manager of Good Vibrations, author of His & Hers, and Dark Matter and editor of the Noirotica Series.