Nevil Shute

They sat by the lake for a couple of hours, talking, finding out about each other.

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 liked thinking clearly. Rows frightened him; he would go to considerable lengths to avoid them.

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

" People believe what they want to believe."

His agitation was subsiding; already he was becoming aware that he had not got it in him to make these men believe that what he said was true. He had had so much of this in the past; he was accustomed to being right and being disbelieved on vital issues. It was what happened to him; other people could put across their convictions and win credence, but he had never been able to do that. Now it was happening again.

She recognised in Mr Honey a man of moods, capable of deep depression; all geniuses, she had read, were men like that.