“Every time you go to see Hamlet you don't expect it to have a happy ending...you're still enthralled. (Interview BBC Radio 4… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“... those sectaries in Europe who are always expecting the end of the world, but who hope that, after the earth has… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
What really disconcerts commentators, I suspect, is that when they read historical fiction, they feel their own lack of education may be… — 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
Much historical fiction that centers on real people has always been deficient in information, lacking in craft and empty in affect. — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“In the forest you may find yourself lost, without companions. You may come to a river which is not on a map.… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“How many men can say, as I must, 'I am a man whose only friend is the King of England'? I have… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“The reader may ask how to tell fact from fiction. A rough guide: anything that seems particularly unlikely is probably true.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“If Mary's blood is Spanish, at least it is royal. And at least she can walk straight and has control of her… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I said to my mother, Henry VII is interesting. No he's not, my mother said.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Your love of glory must conquer your will to survive; or why fight at all? Why not be a smith, a brewer,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“When you're writing historical fiction, you are always looking for the untold story. You're looking for what has been repressed politically, or… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“You know what it's like when a cart overturns in the street? Everybody you meet has witnessed it. They saw a man's… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He is not a man wedded to action, Boleyn, but rather a man who stands by, smirking and stroking his beard; he… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“No man as godly as George, the only fault he finds with God is that he made folk with too few orifices.… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He draws a line under his conclusions. Says, 'Gregory, what should I do about the great worm?' 'Send a commission against it,… — 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
