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 BENNETTHere 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
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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His writing is that of someone whose whole life was spent in apartments, with lifts, stairwells, muffled voices behind closed doors, and sounds through walls.
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Our perspective on the past alters. Looking back, immediately in front of us is dead ground.
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Cloisters, ancient libraries … I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.
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Nature played a cruel trick on her by giving her a waxed mustache.
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I think the writer’s quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I’d have thought, slightly more risky.
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No mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts people off.
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I dont know whether you’ve ever looked into a miner’s eyes for any length of time, that is. Because it is the loveliest blue you’ve ever seen.
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My experience came before most of you were born.
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I’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control.
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The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you.
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I think perhaps that’s why I live in Ibiza, because the blue of the Mediterranean, you see, reminds me of the blue of the eyes of those Doncaster miners.
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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.
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Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.
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A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
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An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left,
ALAN BENNETT