I turned down a knighthood. It would be like having to wear a suit every day of your life.
ALAN BENNETTI tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success,
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.
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The trouble is, as soon as you’ve chosen somebody it obscures anybody else you might have thought of.
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I’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control.
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Of course my standards are out of date! That’s why they’re called standards.
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It’s the one species I wouldn’t mind seeing vanish from the face of the earth.
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A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
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[talking about the Holocaust] ‘But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained.
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It 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.
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Imagine that. Per person. This means that if the time scale is diminished in proportion to that of space it would be quite possible for the whole story of Greece and Rome to be played out between farts.
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My films are about embarrassment.
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I’m not good at precise, coherent argument. But plays are suited to incoherent argument, put into the mouths of fallible people.
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Of course they’re out of date. Standards are always out of date. That is what makes them standards.
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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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Books, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.
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You must take people as they come. Remember, too that though you will generally know more about the condition than the patient, it is the patient who has the condition and this if nothing else bestows on him or her a kind of wisdom.
ALAN BENNETT