Quote

Never read the Bible as if it means something. Or at any rate don't try and mean it. Nor prayers. The liturgy is best treated and read as if it's someone announcing the departure of trains.

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
Someone
Prayers
Best
Treated
Mean
Rate
Trying
Bible
Something
Train
Liturgy
Never
Prayer
Announcing
Read
Trains
Means
Departure

More quotes by Alan Bennett

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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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It's the one species I wouldn't mind seeing vanish from the face of the earth. I wish they were like the White Rhinosix of them left in the Serengeti National Park, and all males.
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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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If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.
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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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Had your forefathers, Wigglesworth, been as stupid as you are, the human race would never have succeeded in procreating itself.
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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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Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.
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The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
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Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull.
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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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History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.
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I'm for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control.
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Here I sit, alone at 60, Bald and fat and full of sin Cold the seat, and loud the cistern As I read the (Harpic) (Lysol) tin
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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.
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There is no such thing as a good script, onlya good film, and I'm conscious that my scripts often read better than they play.
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So boring you fall asleep halfway through her name.
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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
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It seems to me the mark of a civilized society that certain privileges should be taken for granted such as education, health care and the safety to walk the streets.
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The thing I think about is that once you've done it, you then start to think about what you're going to do next. It's much easier to follow something that's not been as successful as this.
Alan Bennett