Quotes from Alan Bennett

The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference; there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers are equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic. . . [reading] was anonymous; it was shared; it was common. Here in these pages and between these covers she could go unrecognised. (from The Uncommon Reader, pg 30-31)

it came to her that for some reason Norman was sulking. Behaviour she had seldom come across except in children and the occasional cabinet minister.

Passar o tempo? - disse a Rainha. - Os livros não são para passar o tempo. São sobre outras vidas. Outros mundos. Longe de querer que o tempo passe, sir Kevin, quem nos dera ter mais. Se quiséssemos passar o tempo, íamos à Nova Zelândia.

Considero la literatura (...) como un vasto país hacia las fronteras del cual viajo, pero a las que nunca llegaré. Y he empezado demasiado tarde. Nunca me podré poner al día.

A book is a device to ignite the imagination

Etiquette may be bad but embarrassment is worse.

Ogni conoscenza è preziosa, che abbia o no la minima utilità per l'uomo.

Presto la regina decise che probabilmente era meglio incontrare gli autori dentro le pagine dei romanzi, creature dell'immaginazione del lettore come i personaggi. Non sembravano neppure grati a chi aveva letto i loro libri; erano loro ad averci fatto la cortesia di scriverli.

I wanted to say that the literature may say that, but that literature doesn't.

Watching people behave is nothing special; watching them trying to behave is always fascinating.

Tu gli dài l'istruzione, io gli strumenti per resisterle. Insieme formiamo quell'entità che il nostro preside adora: un «team».

Then down into Giggleswick to a silly supper and a game of Trivial Pursuit. To play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.

Kyetäkseen kirjoittamaan ihmisen on oltava sitkeä.

La storia è il commento alle varie e continue incapacità degli uomini.

3 August, Yorkshire. I know so little that writing is like crossing a patch of swampy ground, jumping from one tussock to another trying not to get my feet wet (or egg on my face). Of course at a distance no one can see the ground is swampy, and at a distance too one's movements are smoothed out, the hesitations diminished. Fifty years on, the anguished leaps may seem like confident strides. Except who will be looking?

Much comment on Mrs T.'s courage the next morning, when she arrives at the Conservative conference on the dot, but it's not difficult to appear calm and unruffled in such circumstances, as any actor could tell you. The majority of people perform well in a crisis and when the spotlight is on them; it's on the Sunday afternoons of this life, when nobody is looking, that the spirit falters.

Exploded?' said the Queen. 'But it was Anita Brookner.' The young man, who seemed remarkably undeferential, said security may have thought it was a device. The Queen said: 'Yea. That is exactly what it is. A book is a device to ignite the imagination.' The footman said: 'Yes, ma'am.

I suppose everyone gets written about sooner or later.

It was almost a side-effect that this caused me to educate myself to a degree which was beyond anything a school could hope to achieve. My own appetite for knowledge and reading and connection had led me, and that is how education works, not by spoon-feeding, but by stimulating the appetite so that children cannot wait to feed themselves.

Still Mrs. ransom felt [remarking on daytime talk shows], they were all better than she was. For what none of these. whooping, giggling (and often quite obese) creatures seemed in no doubt about was that at the basic level at which these programs were pitched people were all the same. There was no shame and no reserve and to pretend otherwise was to be stuck up and a hypocrite.

Once upon a time I had my life planned out...

Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.

think of literature,' she wrote, 'as a vast country to the far borders of which I am journeying but will never reach.

The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something lofty about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic.