Friendship

This sounds simple and clichéd, but I want to know what people think about friendship. What qualities do you need the most in a friend? We always hear of things like "a friend *is there* for me", "a friend does *not judge* me", "I can *be myself* with a friend" etc. What are your criteria/expectations? Which of them would you be willing to compromise on and to what extent? Does a friend have to be intelligent and interesting only, or a "good" person too (by whatever your definition of "good person" is)? Or is the former not important at all as long as the person is well intentioned? Does the person have to be "good" in general; i.e., towards other people or society at large, or is it enough for them to be good to you? Are intellectual elements such as criticisms and debates important, and do you prefer that they keep you honest always? Or may be there are some here who think friends are just for having a "good time" with and are happy as long as they have fun with friends. What do you think? Or do friends have to be fun in addition to satisfying other things?

Do they need to take interest in you, your passions and what you do? For e.g., would you naturally expect a friend to give you feedback on your tennis strokes or a work of art of yours? Do you think this is reciprocal and if so how do you define the terms of your "transactions" with people? Is it based on the other person's action/inaction? Also, do friends always have to share their goals and dreams and experiences with you?

Further, I have come across people ("friends") who are mostly competitive. Their focus is almost always on how much better (or worse) you do than them in anything. Do things like this seem significant to you at all and would they affect your image of them as a friend?

My final set of questions revolves around how people change with time and circumstances. Does it affect you if a person you were once close to changed in some way that may be considered "superficial"? For e.g., if a friend of yours completely changed the way they look or talk, would you feel comfortable adjusting to the change and still thinking of the person as the same friend?

Maybe there is no specific set of criteria and each friend is different from another and you like different things about different people. But are there any common (least common denominator) set of qualities you want a friend to have or want a friend *not* to have?

The above mentioned are just a few aspects. Please feel free to comment on anything you may think of outside of these questions too.

Looking forward to reading various thoughts!