“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.” TryingHas BeensStatesSchoolBornMy OwnHalfBoysHappenedStudentsDecidedUniversityDozenOxfordCambridgeLeedsHeadmasters Author:Alan Bennett
“I had no idea of who could play it, no notion really. Then Richard came to see us but I don't think it was decided at that meeting. The trouble is, as soon as you've chosen somebody it obscures anybody else you might have thought of. It's like going to a place that you've never been to before - you've got a picture of it and then you go there and that picture is totally wiped out by the reality.” ThinkingIdeasPlayRealityMightTroubleDecidedMeetingsNotionChosenNo Idea Author:Alan Bennett
“But then books, as I'm sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action. Books generally just confirm you in what you have, perhaps unwittingly, decided to do already. You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated. A book, as it were, closes the book.” KnowsBookActionCoursesDecidedConvictionPrompts Book:The Uncommon Reader Source: The Uncommon Reader
“Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met within the pages of their novels, and were as much creatures of the reader's imagination as the characters in their books. Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them.” ThinkingWritingBookDoneCharacterSeemsReadingImaginationKindnessNovelReaderMetsCreaturesPagesDecided Book:The Uncommon Reader Source: The Uncommon Reader
