“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 Entertainment Copy Share Image
I'm all in favour of free expression provided it's kept rigidly under control. — Alan Bennett Expression Copy Share Image
Closing a public library is child abuse, really, because it hinders child development. — Alan Bennett Abuse Copy Share Image
Polly: Education with socialists, it's like sex, all right as long as you don't have to pay for it. — Alan Bennett Education Copy Share Image
Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have. — Alan Bennett Book Copy Share Image
I've never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea has… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. — Alan Bennett Book Copy Share Image
“I am the King. I tell. I am not told. I am the verb, sir. I am not the object.” — Alan Bennett King Copy Share Image
The longer I practise medicine, the more convinced I am there are only two types of cases: those that involve taking the… — 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
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Learning 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 Book Copy Share Image
I saw someone peeing in Jermym Street the other day. I thought, is this the end of civilization as we know it?… — Alan Bennett Civilization Copy Share Image
“To reduce a library to simple architecture, bricks and mortar is a mistake. Similarly, to suggest a library is defined by the… — Alan Bennett Architecture Copy Share Image
I've never forgotten that experience. But I had nobody at school that was either like Hector or Irwin. The masters had no… — Alan Bennett Exam Copy Share Image
Remember. You are a physician. You are not a policeman nor are you a minister of religion. You must take people as… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“When they arrived at the palace she had a word with Grant, the young footman in charge, who said it was security… — Alan Bennett Books Copy Share Image
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 Blue Copy Share Image
“TIMMS: I don't see how we can understand it. Most of the stuff poetry's about hasn't happened to us yet. HECTOR: But… — Alan Bennett Happiness Copy Share Image
Deluded liberal that I am, I persist in thinking that those with a streak of sexual unorthodoxy ought to be more tolerant… — 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… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
I didn't even have a clear idea of why I wanted to go to Oxford - apart from the fact I had… — Alan Bennett Academic Copy Share Image
“Since Betty was on the pill or took precautions of her own which Graham did not choose to enquire into, the marital… — Alan Bennett Smut Copy Share Image
If you find yourself born in Barnsley and then set your sights on being Virginia Woolf it is not going to be… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“I note at the age of ten a fully developed ability not quite to enjoy myself, a capacity I have retained intact… — Alan Bennett Ability Copy Share Image
Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now? — Alan Bennett Children Copy Share Image
Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key. — Alan Bennett Inspirational life Copy Share Image
Had your forefathers, Wigglesworth, been as stupid as you are, the human race would never have succeeded in procreating itself. — Alan Bennett Forefathers Copy Share Image
“Marriage is supposed to be a partnership. Good-looking people marry good-looking people and the others take what's left.” — Alan Bennett Humor Copy Share Image
I'm for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control. — Alan Bennett Expression Copy Share Image
“She wasn't wholly infatuated, though she liked the way he looked; but, so too did he and that unfatuated her a bit.” — Alan Bennett Heart Copy Share Image
“For a child a library needs to be round the corner. And if we lose local libraries it is children who will… — Alan Bennett Children Copy Share Image
Children always assume the sexual lives of their parents come to a grinding halt at their conception. — Alan Bennett Children Copy Share Image
No mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
Philip Larkin used to cheer himself up by looking in the mirror and saying the line from Rebecca, 'I am Mrs de… — Alan Bennett Copy Share Image
“Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it, and pass it on. Not for me, not for… — Alan Bennett Football Copy Share Image
The Breed never dies. Sapper, Buchan, Dornford Yates, practitioners in that school of Snobbery withViolence that runs like a thread of good-class… — Alan Bennett Books Copy Share Image
I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment. — Alan Bennett Establishment Copy Share Image
I'd somehow always thought of the classics of literature as something apart from me, something to do with academic life and not… — Alan Bennett Academic Copy Share Image
