‘Why do you stand it?’ ‘I want to influence people so they’ll do what I think it’s important they should do. I can’t get ’em to do that unless I let ’em bore me first, you understand. Then just as they’re delighting in having got me punch-drunk with talk I come back at ’em and make ’em do what I’ve got lined up for ’em.’ ‘I wish I could do that,’ Dixon said enviously. ‘When I’m punchdrunk with talk, which is what I am most of the time, that’s when they come at me and make me do what they want me to do.’
