Quotes by Alan Bennett

About Alan Bennett:

Alan Bennett is an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. He was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with the Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full-time, his first stage play Forty Years On being produced in 1968.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.

Alan Bennett

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even...

Alan Bennett

I'm not "happy" but I'm not unhappy about it.

Alan Bennett

How do I define history? It's just one fucking thing after another" - Rudge

Alan Bennett

It's subjunctive history. You know, the subjunctive? The mood used when something may or may not have happened. When it is imagined.

Alan Bennett

History is just one fucking thing after another.

Alan Bennett

One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.

Alan Bennett

Dakin: The more you read, though, the more you'll see that literature is actually about losers. Scripps: No. Dakin: It's consolation. All literature is consolation.

Alan Bennett

The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someo...

Alan Bennett

I didn't even have a clear idea of why I wanted to go to Oxford - apart from the fact I had fallen in love with the architecture. It certainly wasn't out of some great sense of academic or intellectual achievement. In many ways, my education only beg...

Alan Bennett

A book is a device to ignite the imagination.

Alan Bennett

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 it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.

Alan Bennett

You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.

Alan Bennett

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 the reading she wanted to do.

Alan Bennett

[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 perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.

Alan Bennett

The days weren't long enough for the reading she wanted to do.

Alan Bennett

Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.

Alan Bennett

Archbishop. Why do I never read the lesson?” “I beg your pardon, ma’am?” “In church. Everybody else gets to read and one never does. It’s not laid down, is it? It’s not off-limits?” “Not that I’m aware, ma’am.” “Good. Well i...

Alan Bennett

...to her all books were the same and, as with her subjects, she felt a duty to approach them without prejudice...Lauren Bacall, Winifred Holtby, Sylvia Plath - who were they? Only be reading could she find out.

Alan Bennett

You don't put your life into books. You find it there.

Alan Bennett

Author Bio

  • NameAlan Bennett
  • DescriptionEnglish actor, author
  • BornMay 9, 1934
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionActor; Screenwriter; Author; Playwright
  • AwardsLaurence Olivier Award