I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.
ALAN BENNETTOver the years Miss Shepherd was visited by a succession of social workers so the character in the play is a composite figure.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human.
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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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f they’d been working with Alec Guinness, for instance, they wouldn’t have known they were born if they’d not towed the line!
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But then books, as I’m sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action.
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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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A composite too are the neighbours, Pauline and Rufus, though I have made Rufus a publisher in remembrance of my neighbour, the late Colin Haycraft, the proprietor of Duckworth’s.
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Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
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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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I’ve never forgotten that experience. But I had nobody at school that was either like Hector or Irwin.
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My experience came before most of you were born.
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Standards are always out of date. That’s what makes them standards.
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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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In the way of circumstances and background to transcend I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint.
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There are more microbes per person than the entire population of the world.
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But most men regard their life as a poem that women threaten.
ALAN BENNETT