Books are not about passing the time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds.
ALAN BENNETTAnd now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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I turned down a knighthood. It would be like having to wear a suit every day of your life.
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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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That’s a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water.
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Above literature?’ said the Queen. ‘Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity.
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Culminating with a man in a white coat saying to one kindly, “And now can you tell me the name of the Prime Minister?”
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Of course my standards are out of date! That’s why they’re called standards.
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Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.
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Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories.
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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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I’m not “happy” but I’m not unhappy about it.
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[talking about the Holocaust] ‘But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained.
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Put him in a nice detached villa and he’d never have written a word.
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I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.
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So boring you fall asleep halfway through her name.
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Your whole life is on the other side of the glass. And there is nobody watching.
ALAN BENNETT