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.
ALAN BENNETTBooks, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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We have fish and chips, which W. and I fetch from the shop in Settle market-place.
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It’s subjunctive history. You know, the subjunctive? The mood used when something may or may not have happened. When it is imagined.
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I write plays about things that I can’t resolve in my mind. I try to root things out.
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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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In the way of circumstances and background to transcend I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint.
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You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated.
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Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.
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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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I had no idea of who could play it, no notion really. Then Richard came to see us but I don’t think it was decided at that meeting.
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Remember. You are a physician. You are not a policeman nor are you a minister of religion.
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I saw someone peeing in Jermym Street the other day. I thought, is this the end of civilization as we know it? Or is it simply someone peeing in Jermyn Street?
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Our perspective on the past alters. Looking back, immediately in front of us is dead ground.
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To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less…selfish.
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I can walk. It’s just that I’m so rich I don’t need to.
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Philip Larkin used to cheer himself up by looking in the mirror and saying the line from Rebecca, ‘I am Mrs de Winter now!
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