My experience came before most of you were born. My school was a state school in Leeds and the headmaster usually sent students to Leeds University but he didn't normally send them to Oxford or Cambridge. But the headmaster happened to have been to Cambridge and decided to try and push some of us towards Oxford and Cambridge. So, half a dozen of us tried - not all of us in history - and we all eventually got in. So, to that extent, it [The History Boys] comes out of my own experience.
At eighty things do not occur; they recur. - Alan Bennett
At eighty things do not occur; they recur.
- Alan Bennett
One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them. - Alan Bennett
One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.
Cloisters, ancient libraries ... I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone. - Alan Bennett
Cloisters, ancient libraries ... I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.
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… - Alan Bennett
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…
There are more microbes per person than the entire population of the world. Imagine that. Per person. This means that if the time scale is diminished… - Alan Bennett
There are more microbes per person than the entire population of the world. Imagine that. Per person. This means that if the time scale is diminished…
I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment. - Alan Bennett
I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.
Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one … - Alan Bennett
Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one …
Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall. - Alan Bennett
Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.
Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never. - Alan Bennett
Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it’s now or never.
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