Alan Bennett Quotes - Page 2

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• I tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success, The Waste Land not figuring very largely in Mam's scheme of things. "The thing is," I said finally, "he won the Nobel Prize." "Well," she said, with that unerring grasp of inessentials which is the prerogative of mothers, "I'm not surprised. It was a beautiful overcoat."

  Alan Bennett

  Beautiful, Mother, Land

  "Writing Home". Book by Alan Bennett, 1994.

  12 Copy quote

• The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic.

  Alan Bennett

  Reading, Book, Literature

  23 Copy quote

• That's a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water.

  Alan Bennett

  Men, Water, Sahara

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  15 Copy quote

• Above literature?' said the Queen. 'Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity.

  Alan Bennett

  Queens, Humanity, Literature

  Alan Bennett (2008). “The Uncommon Reader”, p.46, Faber & Faber

  21 Copy quote

• It's subjunctive history. You know, the subjunctive? The mood used when something may or may not have happened. When it is imagined.

  Alan Bennett

  May, Mood, Used

  9 Copy quote

• At the drabber moments of my life (swilling some excrement from the steps, for instance, or rooting with a bent coat-hanger down a blocked sink) thoughts occur like 'I bet Tom Stoppard doesn't have to do this' or There is no doubt David Hare would have deputed this to an underling.'

  Alan Bennett

  Doubt, Coats, Steps

  "Untold Stories". Book by Alan Bennett, 2005.

  12 Copy quote

• Memories are not shackles, Franklin, they are garlands.

  Alan Bennett

  Memories, Franklin, Garlands

  1968 Forty Years On (published1969), act 2.

  13 Copy quote

• Art comes out of art; it begins with imitation, often in the form of parody, and it's in the process of imitating the voice of others that one comes to learn the sound of one's own.

  Alan Bennett

  Art, Voice, Sound

  Alan Bennett (2008). “Writing Home”, p.10, Faber & Faber

  10 Copy quote

• I turned down a knighthood. It would be like having to wear a suit every day of your life.

  Alan Bennett

  Awards, Would Be, Knighthood

  9 Copy quote

• An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left, Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.

  Alan Bennett

  Daily Mail, Should, Centre

  Alan Bennett (2007). “Writing Home”, p.160, Macmillan

  8 Copy quote

• My experience came before most of you were born. My school was a state school in Leeds and the headmaster usually sent students to Leeds University but he didn't normally send them to Oxford or Cambridge. But the headmaster happened to have been to Cambridge and decided to try and push some of us towards Oxford and Cambridge. So, half a dozen of us tried - not all of us in history - and we all eventually got in. So, to that extent, it [The History Boys] comes out of my own experience.

  Alan Bennett

  School, Boys, Oxford

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

  11 Copy quote

• We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.

  Alan Bennett

  Children, Cheesy, Humanity

  Old Country (1978) act 2

  10 Copy quote

• One reads for pleasure...it is not a public duty.

  Alan Bennett

  Pleasure, Duty

  10 Copy quote

• Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key.

  Alan Bennett

  Life, Keys, Sardines

  18 Copy quote

• Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.

  Alan Bennett

  Reading, Briefing, Inviting

  Alan Bennett (2008). “The Uncommon Reader”, p.10, Faber & Faber

  13 Copy quote

• Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.

  Alan Bennett

  Book, Other Worlds, Passing

  Alan Bennett (2008). “The Uncommon Reader”, p.13, Faber & Faber

  14 Copy quote

• Never read the Bible as if it means something. Or at any rate don't try and mean it. Nor prayers. The liturgy is best treated and read as if it's someone announcing the departure of trains.

  Alan Bennett

  Prayer, Mean, Trying

  Alan Bennett (2007). “Writing Home”, p.185, Macmillan

  12 Copy quote

• I'm not "happy" but I'm not unhappy about it.

  Alan Bennett

  Contentment, Unhappy, Not Happy

  The History Boys, www.imdb.com. 2006.

  8 Copy quote

• If you find yourself born in Barnsley and then set your sights on being Virginia Woolf it is not going to be roses all the way.

  Alan Bennett

  Sight, Virginia, Rose

  "Writing Home". Book by Alan Bennett, 1994.

  7 Copy quote

• Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?

  Alan Bennett

  Children, Grass

  Alan Bennett (2008). “Alan Bennett Plays 1: Forty Years On, Getting On, Habeas Corpus and Enjoy”, p.63, Faber & Faber

  7 Copy quote

• Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met within the pages of their novels, and were as much creatures of the reader's imagination as the characters in their books. Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them.

  Alan Bennett

  Kindness, Reading, Book

  Alan Bennett (2008). “The Uncommon Reader”, p.22, Faber & Faber

  5 Copy quote

• So boring you fall asleep halfway through her name.

  Alan Bennett

  Sarcastic, Fall, Names

  13 Copy quote

• [B]riefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.

  Alan Bennett

  Reading, Facts, Briefing

  21 Copy quote

• You always know when you're going to arrive. If you go by car, you don't. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you in a good mood, I find.

  Alan Bennett

  Cycling, Car, Good Mood

  10 Copy quote

• Here I sit, alone at 60,
  Bald and fat and full of sin
  Cold the seat, and loud the cistern
  As I read the (Harpic) (Lysol) tin

  Alan Bennett

  Birthday, Tin, Cold

  6 Copy quote

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