“Laclos thought, how about a one-way ticket to Pennsylvania? You’d enjoy life among the Quakers. Alternatively, how about a nice dip in… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Of course I have had to rearrange the text a bit— bugger about with it, as Hébert would say.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Gradually, you see, our people are coming into the power they have always thought is their due.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“People said— though this felt like a heresy— that they had seen Camille make Robespierre laugh.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I can’t divide Camille’s loyalties. Who knows? He might make the wrong choice.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“My father doesn’t have views. He would like to, but he can’t take the risk.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I tell you, dear Citizen Camille—it’s not the deaths I can’t stand. It’s the judgements, the judgements in the courtroom.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The Revolution is your bride,” he said. “As the Church is the Bride of Christ.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The main thing is, the constraints have come off style. What we are saying now is that the Revolution does not proceed… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Ask Robespierre. Ask the man with the conscience which is more important, your friend or your country— ask him how he weighs… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“At first they’d thought the guillotine would be a sweet, clean business, but when you have twenty, perhaps thirty heads to take… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“You would save them. If you could.” “No. There are periods in revolution when to live is a crime, and people must… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The Robespierre women (as one tended to think of them now) were all on display. Madame looked actively, rather intimidatingly benevolent; it… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“A pottery outside Paris was turning out his picture on thick glazed crockery in a strident yellow and blue. This is what… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“In this new hall the factions regroup in their old places. Legendre the butcher bawls out a Brissotin: “I’ll slaughter you!” “First,”… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
Back in my 20s, when I wrote 'A Place of Greater Safety,' the French Revolution novel, I thought, 'I'll always have to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“With France as she is, poor and unarmed, war means defeat. Defeat means either a military dictator who will salvage what he… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
Cravats grow higher, as if they mean to protect the throat. The highest cravats in public life will be worn by Citizen… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Messengers wait outside the door, to carry urgent orders for release. It is difficult, when the pen skips over a name, to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“This may interest you. A letter from my dear cousin Fouquier-Tinville.” Camille cast an eye over his relative’s best handwriting. “Squirm, flattery,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Good morning,” she said. “Are you drunk?” She noticed what a split second it took for him to flare into aggression. “Do… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I think back to those days after the Bastille fell, the Mercure Nationale run from the back of the shop, that little… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Some people know they are condemned; some have time to pray, and others die struggling and screaming, fighting to their last breath.… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“It’s all right for you, you and Danton. I have to go and stutter for two hours at the Jacobins and probably… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Suppose he found that persistent unsparing voice at his elbow one day, claiming that Danton lacked probity; he had an answer, pat,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I resent you—” Robespierre said. His words were lost. “The People,” he shouted, “are everywhere good, and if they obstruct the Revolution—even,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Hérault, Fabre thinks: and his mind drifts back—as it tends to, these days— to the Café du Foy. He’d been giving readings… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“...and I sometimes think that the fading out of the individual personality is what one should desire, not the status of a… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“At the top of the Queen’s Staircase at the Tuileries, there is a series of communicating chambers, crowded every day with clerks,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Talking to Robespierre, one tried to make the right noises; but what is right, these days? Address yourself to the militant, and… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Saint-Just read for the next two hours his report on the plots of the Dantonist faction. He had imagined, when he wrote… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He stepped back, looked up. Cut into the stone above his head were the words RUE MARAT. For a moment he had… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“May 29, the Central Committee of the Sections goes into “permanent session” — what a fine, crisis-ridden sound it has, that term!” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“But just as everything was going along politely, quietly and wonderfully — in poured Citizen Danton and his crew.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“God knows what risks we take, God knows all that Danton has done. God and Camille. God will keep his mouth shut.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
When I wrote about the French Revolution, I didn't choose to write about aristocrats; I chose characters who began their lives in… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I am no one’s agent. I am the agent of the law. All the conspiracies pass through my hands. The Committee, you… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“CAMILLE DESMOULINS: For the establishment of liberty and the safety of the nation, one day of anarchy will do more than ten… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Robespierre has never forgiven his friends the injuries he has done them, nor the kindnesses he has received from them, nor the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
People will identify with a persecuted minority without asking themselves what they are identifying with. — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“The hunter is among the most innocent of men; living in the moment makes him feel pure. When he returns in the evening, his… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“But what would happen … I mean, what would be so awful … if they did meet up?” “Why, it would be like the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
When you have committed enough words to paper, you feel you have a spine stiff enough to stand up in the wind. But when… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
At New Year's he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“The story of my own childhood is a complicated sentence that I am always trying to finish, to finish and put behind me. It… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“He wants to say, because Anne is not a carnal being, she is a calculating being, with a cold slick brain at work behind… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“Come to that, don't pay out good money for horoscopes. If things are going to go badly for you, is that what you need… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“But my sins are my strength, he thinks; the sins I have done, that others have not even found the opportunity of committing. I… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“Mirabeau: “If you have been told to clear us from this hall, you must ask for orders to use force. We shall leave our… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“Cardinal Campeggio has implored Katherine to bow to the king's will, accept that her marriage is invalid and retire to a convent. Certainly, she… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“Sion calls Anne an eel, he calls her a slippery dipper from the slime, and he remembers what the cardinal had called her: my… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
I spend a great deal of time on research, on finding all the available accounts of a scene or incident, finding out all the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
“At the front, people die for their mistakes. Why should politicians be more gently treated? They made the war. They deserve a dozen deaths,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share
