Personal unpleasantness always upset his work; he could not think clearly if his mind was full of hard things that had been said about him, and he li… - Nevil Shute

For many years the actress had been out of touch with the hard realities of life. All her working life had been spent in the facile world of honky-tonk, of synthetic emotion and of phoney glamour. Now she was getting a glimpse into a new world, a world of hard, stark facts, a world in which things had to be exactly right or people would be killed. She was beginning to perceive that little insignificant men like Mr Honey were the brains behind that world.

Environment has its effect on everybody, and for a time it had a numbing effect on him, preventing him from thinking clearly.

He was like a little boy let loose in a toy shop, uncertain which of the attractive treasures to pick up first.