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Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date? Of course they're out of date. Standards are always out of date. That is what makes them standards.

Alan Bennett

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Alan Bennett
Age: 90
Born: 1934
Born: May 9
Actor
Comedian
Diarist
Film Director
Playwright
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Writer
Makes
Headmaster
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Headmasters
Littles
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Standards
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More quotes by Alan Bennett

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I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.
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...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.
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It was the kind of library he had only read about in books.
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God doesn't do notes, either. Did Jesus Christ say, Can I be excused the Crucifixion? No!
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A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
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If I am doing nothing, I like to be doing nothing to some purpose. That is what leisure means.
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Why is it always the intelligent people who are socialists?
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I can walk. It's just that I'm so rich I don't need to.
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I dont know whether you've ever looked into a miner's eyes for any length of time, that is. Because it is the loveliest blue you've ever seen. I think perhaps that's why I live in Ibiza, because the blue of the Mediterranean, you see, reminds me of the blue of the eyes of those Doncaster miners.
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An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left, Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.
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I've never forgotten that experience. But I had nobody at school that was either like Hector or Irwin. The masters had no idea what was expected of you in the scholarship exam, so you just had to busk it really.
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I'm not good at precise, coherent argument. But plays are suited to incoherent argument, put into the mouths of fallible people.
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No mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts people off.
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At eighty things do not occur they recur.
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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.
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Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key.
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I'm all in favour of free expression provided it's kept rigidly under control.
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Memories are not shackles, Franklin, they are garlands.
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To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.
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Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.
Alan Bennett