“Edward Seymour says, ‘You should have been a bishop, Cromwell.’ ‘Edward,’ he says, ‘I should have been Pope.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“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
“He, Cromwell, says to his visitors, just tell them this, and tell them loud: to each monk, one bed: to each bed,… — 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
“People said— though this felt like a heresy— that they had seen Camille make Robespierre laugh.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Where is Richard, do you know?" "Chopping onions on the back step. Oh, you mean Master Richard? Upstairs. Eating. Where's anybody?” — 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
“I was just going over London Bridge and I saw someone had attacked the Madonna's statue. Knocked off the baby's head.’ ‘That… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“~ You know young Francis Weston? He that waits on the king? His people are giving out that you’re a Hebrew... Next… — 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
“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
“Men like Carew, he knows, tend to blame him, Cromwell, for Anne’s rise in the world; he facilitated it, he broke the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“They say she has all the gentlemen of the king’s privy chamber, one after another. She don’t like delay so they all… — 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
“When Stephen comes into a room, the furnishings shrink from him. Chairs scuttle backwards. Joint-stools flatten themselves like pissing bitches. The woollen… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“They say that at Thomas More’s trial, Master Secretary here followed the jury to their deliberations, and when they were seated he… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Rumours crop in the short summer nights. Dawn finds them like mushrooms in the damp grass. Members of Thomas Cromwell's household have… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Mirabeau: “If you have been told to clear us from this hall, you must ask for orders to use force. We shall… — 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 went back to the door of Georges’s study and pushed it open. He and Camille were sitting at either side of… — 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
“Georges told me he would be back, and I have no reason to disbelieve him—but perhaps you’d like to sit down here… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Young Surrey now lays down his knife and begins to complain. Noblemen, he laments, are not respected as they were in the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“As the year goes on, certain deputies—and others, high in public life—will appear unshaven, without coat or cravat; or they will jettison… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Fabre stood up. He placed his fingertips on d‘Anton’s temples. “Put your fingers here,” he said. “Feel the resonance. Put them here,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I daresay something will happen, between now and ’91, to make your fortunes look up.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He looks at Norris, exasperated. He seems to think that with eloquence, with sincerity, with frankness, he can change what is happening.… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“There was a man called Chaumette, scruffy and sharp-featured. He hated the aristocrats and he also hated prostitutes, and the two things… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I do no damage. This is damage, this.” He picked up a paper from Camille’s desk. “I can’t read your writing, but… — 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
