…she felt about reading what some writers felt about writing: that it was impossible not to do it and that at this late stage of her life she had been chosen to read as others were chosen to write.
ALAN BENNETTIf, for instance, we’d made the film after the show had been to Broadway, it would have been exactly the same film but we would have been assured that they would have understood it.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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Our father the novelist; my husband the poet. He belongs to the ages – just don’t catch him at breakfast.
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The liturgy is best treated and read as if it’s someone announcing the departure of trains.
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Clichés can be quite fun. That’s how they got to be clichés.
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Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date?
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Deluded liberal that I am, I persist in thinking that those with a streak of sexual unorthodoxy ought to be more tolerant of their fellows than those who lead an entirely godly, righteous and sober life.
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If I had to sum up my work, I suppose that’s it really: I’m taking the pith out of reality.
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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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It’s much easier to follow something that’s not been as successful as this.
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The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.
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The longer I practise medicine, the more convinced I am there are only two types of cases: those that involve taking the trousers off and those that don’t.
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To play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.
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But then books, as I’m sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action.
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Over the years Miss Shepherd was visited by a succession of social workers so the character in the play is a composite figure.
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Books, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.
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One reads for pleasure…it is not a public duty.
ALAN BENNETT