Quote #12

It wasn't until some time later that I realized that, without it being one of the most momentous encounters in western literature, my mother had met T. S. Eliot. I tried to explain to her the significance of the great poet, but without much success, The Waste Land not figuring very largely in Mam's scheme of things. 'The thing is,' I said finally, 'he won the Nobel Prize.' 'Well,' she said, with that unerring grasp of inessentials which is the prerogative of mothers, 'I'm not surprised. It was a beautiful overcoat.'

More from Alan Bennett

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  3. Headmaster: Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.
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  5. Franklin: Have you ever thought, Headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date? Headmaster: Of course they're out o…
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  7. Schoolmaster: But God, whatever else He is, and of course He is everything else, is not a fool.
  8. To play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.

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