Proline-derived 1, 4-benzodiazepine-2, 5-diones are extremely useful scaffolds in medicinal chemistry. In this paper, we describe a protocol for retentive C3 alkylation of these materials, thus accomplishing the direct synthesis of enantiopure quaternary 1, 4-benzodiazepine-2, 5- diones. The high enantioselectivities (up to 99.5%) are attributed to memory of chirality.