Quotes by Alan Bennett

• We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.
• Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
• We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.
• Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
• My films are about embarrassment.
• Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key.
• Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.
• I've never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea has none.
• I'm all in favour of free expression provided it's kept rigidly under control.
• I write plays about things that I can't resolve in my mind. I try to root things out.
• Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.
• Children always assume the sexual lives of their parents come to a grinding halt at their conception.
• If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.
• Your whole life is on the other side of the glass. And there is nobody watching.
• Sometimes there is no next time, no second chance, no time out. Sometimes it's now or never.