The Waste Land not figuring very largely in Mam’s scheme of things. “The thing is,” I said finally, “he won the Nobel Prize.” “Well,” she said, with that unerring grasp of inessentials which is the prerogative of mothers, “I’m not surprised. It was a beautiful overcoat.”
ALAN BENNETTThe masters had no idea what was expected of you in the scholarship exam, so you just had to busk it really.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left,
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Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date?
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The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature.
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At eighty things do not occur; they recur.
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It seems to me the mark of a civilized society that certain privileges should be taken for granted such as education, health care and the safety to walk the streets.
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History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.
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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 dont know whether you’ve ever looked into a miner’s eyes for any length of time, that is. Because it is the loveliest blue you’ve ever seen.
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Books generally just confirm you in what you have, perhaps unwittingly, decided to do already.
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Life is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all of us looking for the key.
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Clichés can be quite fun. That’s how they got to be clichés.
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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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I was an only child. I lost both my parents. By the time I was twenty I was bald. I’m homosexual.
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Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.
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Children always assume the sexual lives of their parents come to a grinding halt at their conception.
ALAN BENNETT