“Still, for all that everybody, while not happy, is not unhappy about it. And so they go on.” — Alan Bennett Happiness Copy Share Image
“Proust's is a long book, though, water- skiing permitting, you could get through it in the summer recess” — Alan Bennett Books Copy Share Image
“The Jews had holidays that turned up out of the blue and the Catholics had children in much the same way.” — Alan Bennett Children Copy Share Image
Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull. — Alan Bennett Congo Copy Share Image
I've been very lucky in everything, really - in my career and in finding someone to share my life with, and in… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
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! — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Cloisters, ancient libraries ... I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone. — Alan Bennett Ancient Copy Share Image
I turned down a knighthood. It would be like having to wear a suit every day of your life. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“30 November. My dustbin has been on its last legs for some time, and after the binmen have called this morning I… — Alan Bennett Dustbin Copy Share Image
I was an only child. I lost both my parents. By the time I was twenty I was bald. I'm homosexual. In… — Alan Bennett Art Copy Share Image
History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just… — Alan Bennett Bookshelf Copy Share Image
What I'm above all primarily concerned with is the substance of life, the pith of reality. If I had to sum up… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
The nearest my parents came to alcohol was at Holy Communion and they utterly overestimated its effects. However bad the weather, Dad… — Alan Bennett Alcohol Copy Share Image
[B]riefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is… — Alan Bennett Antithesis Copy Share Image
Our father the novelist; my husband the poet. He belongs to the ages - just don't catch him at breakfast. Artists, celebrated… — Alan Bennett Age Copy Share Image
“HEADMASTER: I was a geographer. I went to Hull. IRWIN: Oh. Larkin. HEADMASTER: Everybody says that. 'Hull? Oh, Larkin.' I don't know… — Alan Bennett Art Copy Share Image
It [Cambridge] wasn't a holy grail in the sense that I'd never been to Cambridge. But then, when I did go, the… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I always like to break out and address the audience. In 'The History Boys', for instance, without any ado, the boys will… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Sometimes, particularly in summers in New York, I have tried to write in shorts or with no shirt on and found myself… — Alan Bennett Being Copy Share Image
There are more microbes per person than the entire population of the world. Imagine that. Per person. This means that if the… — Alan Bennett Bacteria Copy Share Image
If, for instance, we'd made the film after the show had been to Broadway, it would have been exactly the same film… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“She said, 'He knows what I mean. Where did you get those shoes?' He said, 'They're training shoes.' She said, 'Training for… — Alan Bennett Fashion Copy Share Image
Why is it always the "intelligent" people who are socialists? — Alan Bennett Capitalism Copy Share Image
![“A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot." [ Baffled at a Bookcase ( London Review of Books , Vol. 33 No. 15, 28 July 2011)]” quote by Alan Bennett](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/8c1/alan-bennett-1922_bookshelf_a-bookshelf-is-as-particular-to-its-owne_3055789.jpg)
![“[B]riefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.” quote by Alan Bennett](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/8a2/alan-bennett-1922_antithesis_b-riefing-is-not-reading-in-fact-it-is-t_1454820.jpg)
![“It [Cambridge] wasn't a holy grail in the sense that I'd never been to Cambridge. 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.” quote by Alan Bennett](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/838/alan-bennett-1922_black_it-cambridge-wasn-t-a-holy-grail-in-the_892083.jpg)
