Of course they’re out of date. Standards are always out of date. That is what makes them standards.
ALAN BENNETTSchweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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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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You always know when you’re going to arrive. If you go by car, you don’t. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you in a good mood, I find.
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Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
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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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The thing I think about is that once you’ve done it, you then start to think about what you’re going to do next.
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Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them.
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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.
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We don’t see it, and because we don’t see it this means that there is no period so remote as the recent past.
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And if it can be explained that it can be explained away.’ ‘But this is History. Distance yourselves.
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If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means.
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I saw someone peeing in Jermym Street the other day. I thought, is this the end of civilization as we know it? Or is it simply someone peeing in Jermyn Street?
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Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key.
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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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We still don’t like to admit the war was even partly our fault because so many of our people died.
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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.
ALAN BENNETT