California, the department store state. - Raymond Chandler

It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.

However hard I try to be nice I always end up with my nose in the dirt and my thumb feeling for somebody’s eye.

But show business has always been like that - any kind of show business. If these people didn't live intense and rather disordered lives, if their emotions didn't ride them too hard — well, they wouldn't be able to catch those emotions in flight and imprint them on a few feet of celluloid or project them across the footlights.