Books, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.
ALAN BENNETTThe appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.
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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.
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I tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success,
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If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.
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But then, when I did go, the contrast between Leeds, which was very black and sooty in those days, and Cambridge, which seemed like something out of a fairystory, in the grip of a hard frost, was just wonderful.
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Of course my standards are out of date! That’s why they’re called standards.
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My experience came before most of you were born.
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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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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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It [Cambridge] wasn’t a holy grail in the sense that I’d never been to Cambridge.
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Never read the Bible as if it means something. Or at any rate don’t try and mean it. Nor prayers.
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Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.
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You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated.
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But then books, as I’m sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action.
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Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull.
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