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 More Quotes by Alan Bennett More Quotes From Alan Bennett Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Alan Bennett passing other-worlds book I don't talk very well. With writing, you've time to get it right. Also I've found the more I talk the less I write, and if I didn't write no one would want me to talk anyway. Alan Bennett want writing book Art comes out of art; it begins with imitation, often in the form of parody, and it's in the process of imitating the voice of others that one comes to learn the sound of one's own. Alan Bennett voice sound art [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 briefing reading facts Memories are not shackles, Franklin, they are garlands. Alan Bennett garlands franklin memories At the drabber moments of my life (swilling some excrement from the steps, for instance, or rooting with a bent coat-hanger down a blocked sink) thoughts occur like 'I bet Tom Stoppard doesn't have to do this' or There is no doubt David Hare would have deputed this to an underling.' Alan Bennett coats doubt steps Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key. Alan Bennett sardines keys life At eighty things do not occur; they recur. Alan Bennett eighty That's a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water. Alan Bennett sahara water men One reads for pleasure...it is not a public duty. Alan Bennett pleasure duty You always know when you're going to arrive. If you go by car, you don't. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you in a good mood, I find. Alan Bennett good-mood cycling car Here I sit, alone at 60, Alan Bennett tin cold birthday Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have. Alan Bennett definitions book thinking I was an only child. I lost both my parents. By the time I was twenty I was bald. I'm homosexual. In the way of circumstances and background to transcend I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint. Alan Bennett parent artist children If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means. Alan Bennett purpose work mean Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now? Alan Bennett grass children We have fish and chips, which W. and I fetch from the shop in Settle market-place. Some local boys come in and there is a bit of chat between them and the fish-fryer about whether the kestrel under the counter is for sale. Only when I mention it to W. does he explain Kestrel is now a lager. I imagine the future is going to contain an increasing number of incidents like this, culminating with a man in a white coat saying to one kindly, "And now can you tell me the name of the Prime Minister?" Alan Bennett names men boys A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot. Alan Bennett clothes shoes feet I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain. Alan Bennett refrain character mean A book is a device to ignite the imagination. Alan Bennett reading imagination book
