Alan Bennett Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.”

“Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key.”

“I have no nickname, as there has never been any need for one.”

“We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.”

“I always like to break out and address the audience. In 'The History Boys', for instance, without any ado, the boys will suddenly turn and talk to the audience and then go back into the action. I find it more adventurous doing it in prose than on the stage, but I like being able to make the reader suddenly sit up.”

“I'd somehow always thought of the classics of literature as something apart from me, something to do with academic life and not something you enjoyed.”

“Teachers need to feel they are trusted. They must be allowed some leeway to use their imagination; otherwise, teaching loses all sense of wonder and excitement.”

“I'm less genial than people think, but I'm too timid to seem nasty.”

“My films are about embarrassment.”

“Cancer, like any other illness, is a bore.”