Alan Bennett

Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only…

— Alan Bennett

... Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed…

— Alan Bennett

“It was almost a side-effect that this caused me to educate myself to a degree which was beyond anything a school could…

— Alan Bennett

“ . . . there was little to choose between Jews and Catholics. The Jews had holidays that turned up out of…

— Alan Bennett

Our father the novelist; my husband the poet. He belongs to the ages - just don't catch him at breakfast. Artists, celebrated…

— Alan Bennett

“I don't always understand poetry!' 'You don't always understand it? Timms, I never understand it. But learn it now, know it now…

— Alan Bennett

Above literature?' said the Queen. 'Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity.

— Alan Bennett

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

Kafka could never have written as he did had he lived in a house. His writing is that of someone whose whole…

— Alan Bennett

Never read the Bible as if it means something. Or at any rate don't try and mean it. Nor prayers. The liturgy…

— Alan Bennett

...she felt about reading what some writers felt about writing: that it was impossible not to do it and that at this…

— Alan Bennett

Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never.

— Alan Bennett

My films are about embarrassment.

— Alan Bennett

“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

Cancer, like any other illness, is a bore.

— Alan Bennett

I dont know whether you've ever looked into a miner's eyes for any length of time, that is. Because it is the…

— Alan Bennett

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

History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the…

— Alan Bennett

Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.

— Alan Bennett

A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just…

— Alan Bennett

Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull.

— Alan Bennett

[talking about the Holocaust] 'But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it…

— Alan Bennett

“History nowadays is not a matter of conviction. It’s a performance. It’s entertainment. And if it isn’t, make it so.”

— Alan Bennett

“Much comment on Mrs T.’s courage the next morning, when she arrives at the Conservative conference on the dot, but it’s not…

— Alan Bennett

“A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just…

— Alan Bennett