“My father doesn’t have views. He would like to, but he can’t take the risk.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Law of Suspects. Suspects are those: who have in any way aided tyranny (royal tyranny, Brissotin tyranny...); who cannot show that they… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Collot is back from Lyon, did you know? He had finished his work, as he describes it. His path of righteousness is… — 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
“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
“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
“Who are the Brissotins? A good question. You see, if you accuse people of a crime (for example, and especially, conspiracy) and… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Has it ever occurred to you that Max feels the same basic contempt for you as you do for him?” “He feels… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Provence and Artois will be back. Antoinette. She will resume her state. The priests will be back. Children now in their cradles… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Abroad? Oh no. I went to England in ’91, and you stood in the garden at Fontenay and berated me.” He shook… — 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
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
“You must, of course. Robespierre doesn’t lie or cheat or steal, doesn’t get drunk, doesn’t fornicate—overmuch. He’s not a hedonist or a… — 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
“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
“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
“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
“In Paris the swaying lanterns are lit in the streets; lights shine through water, fuzzy, diffuse. Saint-Just sits by an insufficient fire,… — 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
“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
People will identify with a persecuted minority without asking themselves what they are identifying with. — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
