All Alan Bennett Quotes
- You always know when you're going to arrive. If you go by car, you don't. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you… Always Know
- There's very little in the substance of [THE LADY IN THE VAN] which is not fact though some adjustments have had to be made. Over… Adjustments
- Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall. Humour
- I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain. Call
- Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Book
- At eighty things do not occur; they recur. Eighty
- Deluded liberal that I am, I persist in thinking that those with a streak of sexual unorthodoxy ought to be more tolerant of their fellows… Assume
- The nearest my parents came to alcohol was at Holy Communion and they utterly overestimated its effects. However bad the weather, Dad never drove to… Alcohol
- I turned down a knighthood. It would be like having to wear a suit every day of your life. Awards
- It seems to me the mark of a civilized society that certain privileges should be taken for granted such as education, health care and the… Care
- Philip Larkin used to cheer himself up by looking in the mirror and saying the line from Rebecca, 'I am Mrs de Winter now! Cheer
- But most men regard their life as a poem that women threaten. They may not have two spondees to rub together but they still want… Activities
- What I'm above all primarily concerned with is the substance of life, the pith of reality. If I had to sum up my work, I… All
- 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)… Bent
- I saw someone peeing in Jermym Street the other day. I thought, is this the end of civilization as we know it? Or is it… Civilization
- The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you… Across
- But then books, as I'm sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action. Books generally just confirm you in what you have, perhaps unwittingly,… Action
- What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren't long enough for… Book
- Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of… Book
- A book is a device to ignite the imagination. Book
- Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key. All
- You don't put your life into your books, you find it there. Book
- ...she felt about reading what some writers felt about writing: that it was impossible not to do it and that at this late stage of… Been
- Above literature?' said the Queen. 'Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity. Humanity
- [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… Antithesis