I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.
ALAN BENNETTMy school was a state school in Leeds and the headmaster usually sent students to Leeds University but he didn’t normally send them to Oxford or Cambridge.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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Clichés can be quite fun. That’s how they got to be clichés.
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Cloisters, ancient libraries … I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.
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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’m for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control.
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One recipe for happiness is to have to sense of entitlement.’ To this she added a star and noted at the bottom of the page: ‘This is not a lesson I have ever been in a position to learn.
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You have the knowledge but that does not entitle you to be superior. Knowledge makes you the servant not the master.
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They may not have two spondees to rub together but they still want to pen their saga untrammelled by life-threatening activities like trailing round Sainsbury’s, emptying the dishwasher or going to the nativity play.
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Culminating with a man in a white coat saying to one kindly, “And now can you tell me the name of the Prime Minister?”
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Only 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.
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But then books, as I’m sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action.
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I tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success,
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My experience came before most of you were born.
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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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Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.
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If I had to sum up my work, I suppose that’s it really: I’m taking the pith out of reality.
ALAN BENNETT