“…when I went out I tried to push the door instead of pulling it. 'Pull it, mate,' said someone, and I had to obey. I nearly tripped over a footscraper and, the door closed, had the impression of loud laughter. The vile blunt-razor-blade wind blew hard from my sister’s house. I felt ashamed and furious. In the East there was politeness, doors opened the right way, there were no footscrapers.”

—  Anthony Burgess

Fiction, The Right to an Answer (1960)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "…when I went out I tried to push the door instead of pulling it. 'Pull it, mate,' said someone, and I had to obey. I ne…" by Anthony Burgess?
Anthony Burgess photo
Anthony Burgess 297
English writer 1917–1993

Related quotes

“I went to a house that was not a house. I opened a door that was not a door. And what I saw, I saw.”

Simon R. Green (1955) British writer

Source: Something from the Nightside

Richard Brautigan photo

“Elizabeth's voice had a door in it. When you opened that door you found another door, and that door opened yet another door. All the doors were nice and led out of her.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer
Simu Liu photo

“Even when I was a struggling actor, I was writing scripts, which were terrible, but I was fueled by a belief that I had to create the door. The right door wasn’t always going to open for me. Sometimes I was going to have to just crash through it or build one where there was no door before.”

Simu Liu (1989) Chinese-born Canadian actor

Source: "‘Shang-Chi’ Star Simu Liu on “Betrayal” of ‘Kim’s Convenience’ Cancellation" in The Hollywood Reporter (21 May 2021) https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/shang-chi-star-simu-liu-1234955154/

“A door opens to me. I go in and am faced with a hundred closed doors.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Se me abre una puerta, entro y me hallo con cien puertas cerradas.
Voces (1943)

“Then he tries to kiss me again. And the second time he tries to kiss me he starts biting my lip … He starts to, um, bite on my top lip and I tried to pull away from him. And then he forces me down on the bed. And I just was very frightened, and I tried to get away from him and I told him ‘No,’ that I didn’t want this to happen but he wouldn’t listen to me. … It was a real panicky, panicky situation. I was even to the point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling to ‘Please stop.’ And that’s when he pressed down on my right shoulder and he would bite my lip. … When everything was over with, he got up and straightened himself, and I was crying at the moment and he walks to the door, and calmly puts on his sunglasses. And before he goes out the door he says ‘You better get some ice on that.’ And he turned and went out the door”

Juanita Broaddrick (1942) American nursing home administrator

Clinton Accuser's Story Aired https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/broaddrick022599.htm (February 25, 1999)

John Fante photo

“I don't remember what I did after I left her. Maybe I went up to Benny Cohen's room over the Grand Central Market. He had a wooden leg with a little door in it. Inside the door were marijuana cigarets.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Source: Ask the Dust (1939), Chapter Four

Ronald Reagan photo

“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989), Farewell Address (1989)

Harry Harrison photo

“When the office door opened suddenly I knew the game was up. It had been a money-maker — but it was all over.”

Harry Harrison The Stainless Steel Rat

Original short-story, "The Stainless Steel Rat" in Astounding magazine (August 1957) http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/hh/ssrshort.htm
The Stainless Steel Rat
Context: When the office door opened suddenly I knew the game was up. It had been a money-maker — but it was all over. As the cop walked in I sat back in the chair and put on a happy grin. He had the same sombre expression and heavy foot that they all have — and the same lack of humour. I almost knew to the word what he was going to say before he uttered a syllable.
"James Bolivar diGriz I arrest you on the charge—"
I was waiting for the word charge, I thought it made a nice touch that way. As he said it I pressed the button that set off the charge of black powder in the ceiling, the crossbeam buckled and the three-ton safe dropped through right on the top of the cop's head. He squashed very nicely, thank you. The cloud of plaster dust settled and all I could see of him was one hand, slightly crumpled. It twitched a bit and the index finger pointed at me accusingly. His voice was a little muffled by the safe and sounded a bit annoyed. In fact he repeated himself a bit.
"On the charge of illegal entry, theft, forgery—"
He ran on like that for quite a while, it was an impressive list but I had heard it all before. I didn't let it interfere with my stuffing all the money from the desk drawers into my suitcase. The list ended with a new charge and I would swear on a stack of thousand credit notes that high that there was a hurt tone in his voice.
"In addition the charge of assaulting a police robot will be added to your record."

Julia Roberts photo

“The first time I felt I was famous was when I went to the movies with my mom. I had gone to the loo, and someone in the bathroom said in a very loud voice, "Girl in stall No. 1 were you in "Mystic Pizza?"”

Julia Roberts (1967) American actress and producer

I paused and I said, yeah that was me.
People Magazine 8/22/99

Related topics