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The days weren’t long enough for the reading she wanted to do.

Alan Bennett

Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic.
ALAN BENNETT

Book Commonwealth Equal Herself Literature Read Reader Republic
Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
ALAN BENNETT

Children Closer Empire Grass Ground Now
It’s the one species I wouldn’t mind seeing vanish from the face of the earth.
ALAN BENNETT

Earth Face Mind One See Species
I wish they were like the White Rhinosix of them left in the Serengeti National Park, and all males.
ALAN BENNETT

Left Male National Park Serengeti White Wish
Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.
ALAN BENNETT

Assume Book Classic Definition Everyone Often Read Think
I’m for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control.
ALAN BENNETT

Control Expression Freedom Give Strict
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.
ALAN BENNETT

Down Mean No Past Period Recent Remote See
The nearest my parents came to alcohol was at Holy Communion and they utterly overestimated its effects.
ALAN BENNETT

Alcohol Communion Effect Holy Near Overestimate Parent Utterly
Books are not about passing the time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds.
ALAN BENNETT

Book Live Other Pass Time World
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.
ALAN BENNETT

Dishwasher Empt Nativity Pen Play Round Saga Sainsbury Threat Trailing
Your whole life is on the other side of the glass. And there is nobody watching.
ALAN BENNETT

Glass Life Nobody Other Side Watch Whole
No mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts people off.
ALAN BENNETT

Do God Him Keep Long Mention No Sleeve Vicar
I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.
ALAN BENNETT

Already Cater Dislike Domestic Instinct Respect Able Scope Understood
His writing is that of someone whose whole life was spent in apartments, with lifts, stairwells, muffled voices behind closed doors, and sounds through walls.
ALAN BENNETT

Apartment Door Someone Sound Spent Wall Write
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.
ALAN BENNETT

Always Anything Apart Arrive By Car Cycle Go Good Know Mood Prefer
You have the knowledge but that does not entitle you to be superior. Knowledge makes you the servant not the master.
ALAN BENNETT

Entitle Knowledge Master Servant Superior

The days weren’t long enough for the reading she wanted to do.

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The days weren’t long enough for the reading she wanted to do.

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