Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Alan BennettRead
You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books reflect and reveal truths about life rather than being mere vessels of personal experiences.
This quote suggests that literature serves as a mirror to our existence. Instead of just pouring our life experiences into our writing, we often discover and understand our own lives and the human experience through reading and engaging with literature. This encourages a deeper connection with the narrative structures that echo our realities and feelings.
Themes
BooksLiteratureLifeSelf-DiscoveryReading
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club discussion about the transformative power of literature.
More from Alan Bennett
All quotes βTo 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.
Alan BennettRead
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
Alan BennettRead
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.
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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.
Alan BennettRead
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
Alan BennettRead
Similar quotes
I'm aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in 'The Catcher In the Rye.' Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach.
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It infuriates me that the work of white American writers can be universal and lay claim to classic texts, while black and female authors are ghetto-ized as 'other.'
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It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
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Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.
Helen KellerRead