To her, though, nothing could have been more serious, and 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 her life she had been chosen to read as others were chosen to write.

— Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett Quotes

Still as I’ve said all along, you can’t polish a turd.

— Alan Bennett

Unlike today’s ideologues, whom I would call single-minded if mind came into it at all, I have no fear of the state.

— Alan Bennett

Stava scoprendo che un libro tira l’altro; ovunque si voltava si aprivano nuove porte e le giornate erano sempre troppo corte per leggere quanto avrebbe voluto.

— Alan Bennett

The closest she got to pretence was politeness.

— Alan Bennett

Stava anche scoprendo che un libro tira l’altro; ovunque si voltava si aprivano nuove porte e le giornate erano troppo corte per leggere quanto avrebbe voluto. Ma era dispiaciuta, e anche mortificata, al pensiero di tutte le occasioni che si era lasciata sfuggire.

— Alan Bennett

But ma’am must have been briefed, surely?’ ‘Of course,’ said the Queen, ’but briefing 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

30 November. My dustbin has been on its last legs for some time, and after the binmen have called this morning I find no trace of it. Never having heard of tautology, the binmen have put the dustbin in the dustbin.

— Alan Bennett

Had she been asked if reading had enriched her life she would have had to say yes, undoubtedly, though adding with equal certainty that it had at the same time drained her life of all purpose.

— Alan Bennett

Yet still the unresting castles thresh In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

— Alan Bennett

Thus it was that the dawn of sensibility was mistaken for the onset of senility.

— Alan Bennett

One has given one’s white-gloved hand to hands that were steeped in blood and conversed politely with men who have personally slaughtered children. One has waded through excrement and gore; to be Queen, I have often thought the one essential item of equipment a pair of thigh-length boots.

— Alan Bennett

One does try not to be an Old Git but they don’t make it easy.

— Alan Bennett

Shut up this minute, you silly little creatures...

— Alan Bennett

When he dipped his cake in his tea – a disgusting business – the whole of his life came back to him. When I did it nothing happened.

— Alan Bennett

I cannot heave my heart into my mouth, is a sentiment I can readily endorse. Her predicament is mine.

— Alan Bennett

When dead she would exist only in the memories of people. She, who had never been subject to anyone would now be on the par with everybody else. Reading could not change that. Though writing might.

— Alan Bennett

She found that after she had written something down, she was happy. Happy as if she had been reading. And it came to her again that did not want to simply be a reader. A reader was next door to being a spectator where as when she was writing she was doing. And doing was her duty.

— Alan Bennett

She had always been good at duty until she started reading.

— Alan Bennett

A few years ago she never would have noticed what Norman was doing. Or anyone else either. And if she took note of it now it was because she knew more of people’s feelings than she used it. And could put herself in someone else’s place.

— Alan Bennett

Asked where his inspiration came from, he said fiercely: ‘It doesn’t come, Your Majesty. You have to go out and fetch it.

— Alan Bennett
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