At eighty things do not occur; they recur.
ALAN BENNETTAt eighty things do not occur; they recur.
ALAN BENNETTIt seems to me the mark of a civilized society that certain privileges should be taken for granted such as education, health care and the safety to walk the streets.
ALAN BENNETTLife is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all of us looking for the key.
ALAN BENNETTThe thing I think about is that once you’ve done it, you then start to think about what you’re going to do next.
ALAN BENNETTPut him in a nice detached villa and he’d never have written a word.
ALAN BENNETTI can walk. It’s just that I’m so rich I don’t need to.
ALAN BENNETTNo mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts people off.
ALAN BENNETTI’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control.
ALAN BENNETTTo play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.
ALAN BENNETTMemories are not shackles, Franklin, they are garlands.
ALAN BENNETTSome local boys come in and there is a bit of chat between them and the fish-fryer about whether the kestrel under the counter is for sale.
ALAN BENNETTBecause you should realise the Cenotaph and the Last Post and all that stuff is concerned, there’s no better way of forgetting something than by commemorating it.
ALAN BENNETTPhilip Larkin used to cheer himself up by looking in the mirror and saying the line from Rebecca, ‘I am Mrs de Winter now!
ALAN BENNETTThe appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature.
ALAN BENNETTA book, as it were, closes the book.
ALAN BENNETTOnly when I mention it to W. does he explain Kestrel is now a lager. I imagine the future is going to contain an increasing number of incidents like this.
ALAN BENNETT