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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.

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
War
Instincts
Never
Scope
Domestic
Establishment
Instinct
Panders
Understood
Catered
Already
Disliking
Within
Respectable

More quotes by Alan Bennett

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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.
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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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The longer I practise medicine, the more convinced I am there are only two types of cases: those that involve taking the trousers off and those that don't.
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I think the writer's quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I'd have thought, slightly more risky.
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Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never.
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[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.
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You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.
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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.
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To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.
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Nature played a cruel trick on her by giving her a waxed mustache.
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We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.
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What I'm above all primarily concerned with is the substance of life, the pith of reality. If I had to sum up my work, I suppose that's it really: I'm taking the pith out of reality.
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The days weren't long enough for the reading she wanted to do.
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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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We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.
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All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I'd got somewhere, then I found I had to go on.
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To play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.
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Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.
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I can walk. It's just that I'm so rich I don't need to.
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Of course my standards are out of date! That's why they're called standards.
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