Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Alan BennettRead
The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature creates an equal space for all readers, regardless of their background or status.
In this quote, Alan Bennett captures the essence of literature as an inclusive and impartial realm where all readers are treated equally. The idea of books being indifferent signifies that they do not judge or favor any reader, allowing everyone to engage with them on their own terms. This democratization of knowledge and stories contributes to literature being described as a commonwealth, reinforcing the notion that reading is a shared human experience that transcends individual differences.
Themes
LiteratureReadingEqualityEducationBooks
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to emphasize the importance of reading in a school presentation.
More from Alan Bennett
All quotes →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.
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.
Alan BennettRead
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
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Vocabulary enables us to interpret and to express. If you have a limited vocabulary, you will also have a limited vision and a limited future.
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Being a librarian certainly helped me with my writing because it made me even more of a reader, and I was always an enthusiastic reader. Writing and reading seem to me to be different aspects of a single imaginative act.
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To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.
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I believe that culture begins in the cradle . . .To do without tales and stories and books is to lose humanity's past, is to have no star map for our future.
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Whenever you read a book or have a conversation, the experience causes physical changes in your brain. It's a little frightening to think that every time you walk away from an encounter, your brain has been altered, sometimes permanently.
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