"If you manage your offers carefully enough, aye. Let the sponsors do whatever they like and they'll steer you down the path that helps them best, whether it has anything to do with your district or not. It's a careful sort of balance, steering things your own way without making too many enemies, and I haven't seen enough of you to know if you can do it. I suppose you'll learn, if you'd like to try. But ultimately, yes. There's little other way to do good in this place, is there?"

That last question isn't asked to make a point. It's asked thoughtfully, slowly, and Roland's frowning as he says it. He's never had any pull to court the richest and most spoiled of the Capitol's people and dance to their tune, and he does not think he ever will. This, by itself, is not what bothers him.