Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull. — Alan Bennett Congo Copy Share Image
Cloisters, ancient libraries ... I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone. — Alan Bennett Ancient Copy Share Image
Above literature?' said the Queen. 'Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity. — Alan Bennett Books 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
Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never. — Alan Bennett Chance Copy Share Image
Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key. — Alan Bennett Life Copy Share Image
Here I sit, alone at 60, Bald and fat and full of sin Cold the seat, and loud the cistern As I… — Alan Bennett Birthday Copy Share Image
You always know when you're going to arrive. If you go by car, you don't. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling.… — Alan Bennett Bicycle Copy Share Image
One recipe for happiness is to have to sense of entitlement.' To this she added a star and noted at the bottom… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
The bits I most remember about my school days are those that took place outside the classroom, as we were taken on… — 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 Book 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
... Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed… — Alan Bennett Book Copy Share Image
“the more institutions and freedoms and benefits one can take for granted – of which in my view free state-supported galleries and… — Alan Bennett Civilised society Copy Share Image
“Libraries are very special spaces, spaces where people come together in separate but joint pursuits of knowledge, of learning. Libraries are the… — Alan Bennett Community Copy Share Image
I had no idea of who could play it, no notion really. Then Richard came to see us but I don't think… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“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 Education 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
At the drabber moments of my life (swilling some excrement from the steps, for instance, or rooting with a bent coat-hanger down… — 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 Book Copy Share Image
“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 Actor Copy Share Image
Kafka could never have written as he did had he lived in a house. His writing is that of someone whose whole… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success, The Waste Land not figuring very… — Alan Bennett Beautiful Copy Share Image
I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain. — Alan Bennett Character Copy Share Image
I don't want to see libraries close; I want to find local solutions that will make them sustainable. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I write plays about things that I can't resolve in my mind. I try to root things out. — Alan Bennett Mind Copy Share Image
I'm more socialist certainly than New Labour - I'm very old Labour, really. — Alan Bennett 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
I'm not good at precise, coherent argument. But plays are suited to incoherent argument, put into the mouths of fallible people. — Alan Bennett Argument Copy Share Image
“Still, for all that everybody, while not happy, is not unhappy about it. And so they go on.” — Alan Bennett Happiness Copy Share Image
“it is seldom at the frontier that discoveries are made but more often in the dustbin.” — Alan Bennett Discoveries Copy Share Image
If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish. — Alan Bennett Books Copy Share Image
Your whole life is on the other side of the glass. And there is nobody watching. — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Nature played a cruel trick on her by giving her a waxed mustache. — Alan Bennett Giving Copy Share Image
There is no such thing as a good script, onlya good film, and I'm conscious that my scripts often read better than… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
