Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky Quotes

“[...] at any rate there is nothing in the world more dreary, damping, and obscurely perturbing than to come out of a cinema in the afternoon to a noisy world.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Though it had no wide reputation, all manner of people frequented 'The Midnight Bell.' This was in its nature, of course, since it is notorious that all manner of people frequent all manner of public-houses - which in this respect resemble railway stations and mad-houses.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Only at dawn should a man awake from excess - at dawn agleam with red and sorrowful resolve.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“If he knew anything of her habits, she was certain to be somewhere about. He was not looking for her. He was submitting himself to the possibility of encounter.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy

“He had been fooled. He had not, after all, had a great time: he had merely been drinking again.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Those entering the Saloon Bar of the ‘The Midnight Bell’ from the street came through a large door with a fancifully frosted glass pane, a handle like a dumb-bell a brass inscription ‘Saloon Bar and Lounge,’ and a brass adjuration to Push. Anyone temperamentally so wilful, careless, or incredulous as to ignore this friendly admonition was instantly snubbed, for this door would only succumb to Pushing. Nevertheless hundreds of temperamental people nightly argued with this door and got the worst of it. Given proper treatment, however, it swung back in the most accomplished way, and announced you to the Saloon Bar with a welcoming creak.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“He had three of his five pounds left. He now offered her two. After a little argument she accepted them. She looked at him as though she thought him too wonderful for words, and he rather agreed with her.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“If he was in the mood to admire someone, why had he not gone to someone genuinely pretty and attractive? She knew she was plain all right: she knew it with such depth and frankness that she could positively find it in her heart to despise his taste! And if she despised his taste, she must despise the whole situation of which she formed a part. He had set in motion a degrading event.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Ella glanced at him reproachfully, and explained herself. ‘Talking to those Prostitutes,’ said Ella. . . . Her violent stress upon the first syllable of this word implied a differentiation between a large class of almost venial Titutes, and another branch of the same class, designated as Pros, and beyond the pale.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Ella had no idea that she was dispensing mental or spiritual states. She had no knowledge of the potency of drink, which she personally detested: she had no knowledge that she played a notable and curious part in the uproar and excitation of civilization: she had no knowledge of the oddity of her station behind that bar – a virtuous, homely, and simple-minded young woman, set up for five hours on end to withstand and
feed the accumulating strength of the behaviour of scores upon scores of strange men manifestly out, or going out, of their minds. She did not even have any conscious knowledge of the nightmare variety of her geographical surroundings.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Over and above this, however, she found that half of her honestly desired to stay. As well as the courage, she lacked the pure inclination to go which she had felt a few moments ago. A new sensation had replaced it. A permeating coma, a warm haze of noises and conversation, wrapped her comfortably around – together with something more. What that something more was she did not quite know. She sat there and let it flow through her. It was a glow, and a kind of premonition. It was certainly a spiritual, but much more emphatically a physical, premonition of good about to befall. It was like the effect on the body of good news, without the good news – a delicious short cut to that inconstant elation which was so arduously won by virtue from the everyday world. It engendered the desire to celebrate nothing for no reason.

She asked herself whether this was intoxication. She decided that at any rate it was a foretaste of it, and in a flash understood what had been a closed book to her until now – the temptations and perils of alcohol. She decided that she was growing up – that yet another of the veiled mysteries of the world had been illuminated by experience. Experience – that was the thing. Sitting there, she exulted in experience.Over and above this, however, she found that half of her honestly desired to stay. As well as the courage, she lacked the pure inclination to go which she had felt a few moments ago. A new sensation had replaced it. A permeating coma, a warm haze of noises and conversation, wrapped her comfortably around – together with something more. What that something more was she did not quite know. She sat there and let it flow through her. It was a glow, and a kind of premonition. It was certainly a spiritual, but much more emphatically a physical, premonition of good about to befall. It was like the effect on the body of good news, without the good news – a delicious short cut to that inconstant elation which was so arduously won by virtue from the everyday world. It engendered the desire to celebrate nothing for no reason.

She asked herself whether this was intoxication. She decided that at any rate it was a foretaste of it, and in a flash understood what had been a closed book to her until now – the temptations and perils of alcohol. She decided that she was growing up – that yet another of the veiled mysteries of the world had been illuminated by experience. Experience – that was the thing. Sitting there, she exulted in experience.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

“Cooshay avec ma sirswar!’ said Jenny. ‘That’s French.’ ‘What?’ ‘Cooshay – avec – ’ repeated Jenny slowly, ‘ma – sirswar.’ ‘What does that mean, Jen?’ asked Prunella. ‘That means “Where are you goin’, deary?” – or “Hullo, darling” – or somethin’ like that.’ ‘No it don’t,’ said Bob. ‘Yes it do,’ said Jenny. ‘That’s what it means. “Where are you goin’, deary?”’ ‘No,’ said Bob, ‘not literally.’ ‘Well, what do it mean, then?’ ‘It means “Sleep with me to-night,”’ said Bob, ‘literally.’ ‘Well, that’s the same, ain’t it?’ ‘Yes,’ said Bob, ‘I suppose it is.’ ‘Only a bit more business-like,’ said Prunella. And the matter was dropped.”
― Patrick Hamilton, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky