Fiction Quotes by Hilary Mantel

10 Fiction quotes by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel’s historical novels are known for their depth, and her thoughts on fiction reveal a respect for detail and character. In this concise group of ten quotes you’ll sense why she believes storytelling can reshape our sense of the past.

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“She lives on the fumes of whiskey and the iron in the blood of her prey.”

Hilary Mantel

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People who wrote literary novels about the past probably didn't want them pegged as historical fiction. Certainly that was true in England.

Hilary Mantel

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Much historical fiction that centers on real people has always been deficient in information, lacking in craft and empty in affect.

Hilary Mantel

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“The reader may ask how to tell fact from fiction. A rough guide: anything that seems particularly unlikely is probably true.”

Hilary Mantel

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Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to…

Hilary Mantel

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What really disconcerts commentators, I suspect, is that when they read historical fiction, they feel their own lack of education may be…

Hilary Mantel

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Fiction leaves us so much work to do, allows the individual so much input; you have to see, you have to hear,…

Hilary Mantel

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Fiction isn't made by scraping the bones of topicality for the last shreds and sinews, to be processed into mechanically recovered prose.…

Hilary Mantel

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“In the forest you may find yourself lost, without companions. You may come to a river which is not on a map.…

Hilary Mantel

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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

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People will identify with a persecuted minority without asking themselves what they are identifying with.

Hilary Mantel

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“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

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“But what would happen … I mean, what would be so awful … if they did meet up?” “Why, it would be like the…

Hilary Mantel

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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

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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

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“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

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“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

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“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

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“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

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Feminism hasn't failed, it's just never been tried.

Hilary Mantel

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“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

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“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

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“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

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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

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“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

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