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To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less…selfish.

Alan Bennett

I’ve never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea has none.
ALAN BENNETT

Except Land Meet never Point Sea Seen Shore
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.
ALAN BENNETT

Country More Pass Time Want Wish
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
We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.
ALAN BENNETT

Children Dicken Look never Put Quite
Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up.
ALAN BENNETT

Book Bought Finish Once Start Way
Books generally just confirm you in what you have, perhaps unwittingly, decided to do already.
ALAN BENNETT

Already Book Confirm Decide Generally Just Perhaps Unwittingly
The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you.
ALAN BENNETT

Across Best Come Feel Look Moment Raed Something Special Particular Thought
At the drabber moments of my life (swilling some excrement from the steps, for instance, or rooting with a bent coat-hanger down a blocked sink) thoughts occur like.
ALAN BENNETT

Bent Block Coat Drabber Excrement Hanger Insane Life Moment Root Some Step Swill
Imagine that. Per person. This means that if the time scale is diminished in proportion to that of space it would be quite possible for the whole story of Greece and Rome to be played out between farts.
ALAN BENNETT

Between Diminish Fart Imagine Impossible Person Proportion Space Time Whole Stoy
Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.
ALAN BENNETT

Come Hard Left List Probably Right Soft Under
I think perhaps that’s why I live in Ibiza, because the blue of the Mediterranean, you see, reminds me of the blue of the eyes of those Doncaster miners.
ALAN BENNETT

Blue Eye Live Perhaps Remind Think
If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means.
ALAN BENNETT

Do Leisure Mean Nothing Purpose Some
I suppose I’m the only person who remembers one of the most exciting of his ballets-it’s the fruit of an unlikely collaboration between Nijinsky on the one hand and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the other.
ALAN BENNETT

Nijinsky Ballet Collaboration Excite Fruit More Only Person Remember Suppose Unlikely
I write plays about things that I can’t resolve in my mind. I try to root things out.
ALAN BENNETT

Mind Out Play Resolve Root Thing Write
Life is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all of us looking for the key.
ALAN BENNETT

Key Life Look Rather Sardine Tin
I was an only child. I lost both my parents. By the time I was twenty I was bald. I’m homosexual.
ALAN BENNETT

Bald Both Child Homosexual Only Parent Time Twenty
Of course my standards are out of date! That’s why they’re called standards.
ALAN BENNETT

Call Course Date Out Standard
Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key.
ALAN BENNETT

Al Box Life Look Sadness Sky
Illogically, I tend to assume that if you ( Philip Larkin) dream of caning schoolgirls bottoms, it disqualifies you from dismissing half the nation as work-shy.
ALAN BENNETT

Assume Bottom Caning Dismiss Disqualify Dream Half Illogically Nation Schoolgirl Shy Work
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.
ALAN BENNETT

Besides Director Down Hierarchy More Piss Place Quite Really Risky Think Took Writer
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
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.
ALAN BENNETT

Explain Future Gone Imagine Incident Increase Larger Mention Number
Books, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.
ALAN BENNETT

Book Bread Butter Finish Mash One Philosophy Plate Potato
But then, when I did go, the contrast between Leeds, which was very black and sooty in those days, and Cambridge, which seemed like something out of a fairystory, in the grip of a hard frost, was just wonderful.
ALAN BENNETT

Balck Cambridge Contrast Day Fairstory Frost Hard Leed Seem Something Sooty Wonderful
The masters had no idea what was expected of you in the scholarship exam, so you just had to busk it really.
ALAN BENNETT

Busk Exam Expect Ide Master Really Scholarship
Cloisters, ancient libraries … I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.
ALAN BENNETT

Ancient Cold Confuse Country Learn Library Smell Stone
One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.
ALAN BENNETT

Hardest Learn Not One Teacher Tell Them Thing Try

To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less…selfish.

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To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less…selfish.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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