Never read the Bible as if it means something. Or at any rate don’t try and mean it. Nor prayers.
ALAN BENNETTThe 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.”
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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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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We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn’t obey the rules.
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Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories.
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My films are about embarrassment.
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If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.
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Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never.
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If you find yourself born in Barnsley and then set your sights on being Virginia Woolf it is not going to be roses all the way.
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Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.
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But the headmaster happened to have been to Cambridge and decided to try and push some of us towards Oxford and Cambridge.
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God doesn’t do notes, either. Did Jesus Christ say, “Can I be excused the Crucifixion?” No!
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All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I’d got somewhere, then I found I had to go on.
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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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If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means.
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Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
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Life is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all of us looking for the key.
ALAN BENNETT