French revolution Quotes by Hilary Mantel

“People said— though this felt like a heresy— that they had seen Camille make Robespierre laugh.”

— Hilary Mantel

“I can’t divide Camille’s loyalties. Who knows? He might make the wrong choice.”

— Hilary Mantel

“Of course I have had to rearrange the text a bit— bugger about with it, as Hébert would say.”

— Hilary Mantel

“Gradually, you see, our people are coming into the power they have always thought is their due.”

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“God knows what risks we take, God knows all that Danton has done. God and Camille. God will keep his mouth shut.”

— Hilary Mantel

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

“The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is…

— Hilary Mantel

“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

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

“A pottery outside Paris was turning out his picture on thick glazed crockery in a strident yellow and blue. This is what…

— Hilary Mantel

“The Robespierre women (as one tended to think of them now) were all on display. Madame looked actively, rather intimidatingly benevolent; it…

— Hilary Mantel

“Ask Robespierre. Ask the man with the conscience which is more important, your friend or your country— ask him how he weighs…

— Hilary Mantel

“The main thing is, the constraints have come off style. What we are saying now is that the Revolution does not proceed…

— Hilary Mantel

“You would save them. If you could.” “No. There are periods in revolution when to live is a crime, and people must…

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“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

“Who are the Brissotins? A good question. You see, if you accuse people of a crime (for example, and especially, conspiracy) and…

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“Collot is back from Lyon, did you know? He had finished his work, as he describes it. His path of righteousness is…

— Hilary Mantel

“I think back to those days after the Bastille fell, the Mercure Nationale run from the back of the shop, that little…

— Hilary Mantel

“Some people know they are condemned; some have time to pray, and others die struggling and screaming, fighting to their last breath.…

— Hilary Mantel

“Messengers wait outside the door, to carry urgent orders for release. It is difficult, when the pen skips over a name, to…

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“...and I sometimes think that the fading out of the individual personality is what one should desire, not the status of a…

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“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

“Suppose he found that persistent unsparing voice at his elbow one day, claiming that Danton lacked probity; he had an answer, pat,…

— Hilary Mantel

“On March 8 Danton mounted the tribune of the Convention. The patriots never forgot the shock of his sudden appearance, nor his…

— Hilary Mantel

“Georges was in a rage. It is a spectacle to comtemplate, his rage. He tore off his cravat, strode about the room,…

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“The Republic is six months old, and it’s flying apart. It has no cohesive force—only a monarchy has that. Surely you can…

— Hilary Mantel

“May 29, the Central Committee of the Sections goes into “permanent session” — what a fine, crisis-ridden sound it has, that term!”

— Hilary Mantel

“But just as everything was going along politely, quietly and wonderfully — in poured Citizen Danton and his crew.”

— Hilary Mantel

“My father doesn’t have views. He would like to, but he can’t take the risk.”

— Hilary Mantel

“The Revolution is your bride,” he said. “As the Church is the Bride of Christ.”

— Hilary Mantel

“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

“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

“God knows,” Charpentier said, “I like the present scheme of things very little, but I dread to think what will happen if…

— Hilary Mantel

“Abroad? Oh no. I went to England in ’91, and you stood in the garden at Fontenay and berated me.” He shook…

— Hilary Mantel