“The living result of the queen’s labors is the diminutive Mary—not really a whole princess, perhaps two-thirds of one.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
For many imaginative writers, working for the press is a fact of their life. But it's best not to like it too… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I have written books and I cannot unwrite them. I cannot unbelieve what I believe. I cannot unlive my life.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
So many years of preparation, for what was called adult life: was it for this? — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
When narratives fracture, when words fail, I take consolation from the part of my life that always works: the stationery order. The… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“But remember this above all: defeat your instinct. Your love of glory must conquer your will to survive; or why fight at… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
The old always think the world is getting worse; it is for the young, equipped with historical facts, to point out that,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
There are plenty of books that tell you how to become a writer, but not one that suggests how, if you want… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
Life being so short, and the possible books to write so many, it's good to function by night as well as by… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“It's the living that turn and chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like… — 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
It follows that if you are not a mother you are not a grandmother. Your life has become unpunctuated, whereas the lives… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“But you see, Crumb, it is hard to give up what you have worked at since you were a boy. There were… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He knows different now. It's the living that chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He is struck by her overview of his situation. It is as if she has understood his life. He is taken by… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
Sometimes you buy a book, powerfully drawn to it, but then it just sits on the shelf. Maybe you flick through it,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
I think psychologically [Margaret Thatcher] is really worth studying. I am reading Charles Moore's biography of her, and he has gotten us… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
The weight of the old world is stifling, and trying to shovel its weight off your life is tiring just to think… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The story of my own childhood is a complicated sentence that I am always trying to finish, to finish and put behind… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I think now that this is the great division between people. There are people who find life hard and those who find… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“You come to this place, mid-life. You don’t know how you got here, but suddenly you’re staring fifty in the face. When… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“His sister Kat, her husband, Morgan Williams, have been plucked from this life as fast as his daughters were taken, one day… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Let's say I will rip your life apart. Me and my banker friends." How can he explain that to him? The world… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“the lawyers’ saying ‘Le mort saisit le vif’? The dead grip the living. The prince dies but his power passes at the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“At least, he thinks, the fellow has the wit to see what this is about: not one year's grudge or two, but… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
It is all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it’s… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Henry stirs into life. “Do I retain you for what is easy? Jesus pity my simplicity, I have promoted you to a… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“You start out, you start talking, you don’t even know what you’re going to say. You don’t even know your way to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
Busyness, I feel increasingly, is the writer's curse and downfall. You read too much and write too readily, you become cut off… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“This revolution - will it be a living?' 'We must hope so. Look, I have to go, I'm visiting a client. He's… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
When I was a child, there was very little money, so I've always been concerned for my financial security, which has meant… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Life’s going to change. You thought it already had? Not nearly as much as it’s going to change now. Everything you disapprove… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
I was the subject of an experiment in love. I lived my life under her gaze, undergoing certain trials for her so… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“This is Maximilien de Robespierre, barrister-at-law: unmarried, personable, a young man with all his life before him. Today against his most deeply… — 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
![“I think psychologically [Margaret Thatcher] is really worth studying. I am reading Charles Moore's biography of her, and he has gotten us right there with a woman who lived the unexamined life, and lived it deliberately, and who has contempt for history, even her own.” quote by Hilary Mantel](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/13a/hilary-mantel-440_biographies_i-think-psychologically-margaret-thatche_206296.jpg)
