It was the kind of library he had only read about in books.
ALAN BENNETTChildren always assume the sexual lives of their parents come to a grinding halt at their conception.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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I suppose I’m the only person who remembers one of the most exciting of his ballets-it’s the fruit of an unlikely collaboration between Nijinsky on the one hand and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the other.
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Some 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.
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It’s like going to a place that you’ve never been to before – you’ve got a picture of it and then you go there and that picture is totally wiped out by the reality.
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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 think the writer’s quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I’d have thought, slightly more risky.
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Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date?
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Kafka could never have written as he did had he lived in a house.
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One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.
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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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There are more microbes per person than the entire population of the world.
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But then books, as I’m sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action.
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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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If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.
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An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left,
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I tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success,
ALAN BENNETT