Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have. — 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
Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met within the pages of their novels, and were as much creatures of the reader's… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I don't talk very well. With writing, you've time to get it right. Also I've found the more I talk the less… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
But then books, as I'm sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action. Books generally just confirm you in what you… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren't… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“Books are not about passing the time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, Sir Kevin, one… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“Books and stories are lifelines, and libraries house those lifelines, making them available to all. They are important not just for the… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
... Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“...to her all books were the same and, as with her subjects, she felt a duty to approach them without prejudice...Lauren Bacall,… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left, Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I'm not good at precise, coherent argument. But plays are suited to incoherent argument, put into the mouths of fallible people. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
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. It's… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
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… — Alan Bennett 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 time scale… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I'm more socialist certainly than New Labour - I'm very old Labour, really. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Why do we not care to acknowledge them? The cattle, the body count. We still don't like to admit the war was even partly… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now? — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
But most men regard their life as a poem that women threaten. They may not have two spondees to rub together but they still… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“BURGESS How do you like Moscow? CORAL Loathe it, darling. I cannot understand what those Three Sisters were on about. It gives the play… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
