A novel should be a book of questions, not a book of answers. Hilary Mantel More Quotes by Hilary Mantel More Quotes From Hilary Mantel Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you. Hilary Mantel endurancepurposemean A statute is written to entrap meaning, a poem to escape it. Hilary Mantel statuteswritten Beneath every history, another history. Hilary Mantel [Margaret Thatcher] was pretending that running a country was like running a household, which she knew wasn't true. Hilary Mantel pretendingrunningcountry Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before. Hilary Mantel returnmomentstaken He is careful to deny responsibility for September, but he does not, you notice, condemn the killings. He also refrains from killing words, sparing Roland and Buzot, as if they were beneath his notice. August 10 was illegal, he says; so too was the taking of the Bastille. What account can we take of that, in revolution? It is the nature of revolutions to break laws. We are not justices of the peace; we are legislators to a new world. Hilary Mantel augustresponsibilitylaw [T]he heart is like any other organ, you can weigh it on a scale. Hilary Mantel organsscalesheart You think you're writing one historical novel and it turns into three, and I'm quite used to a short story turning into a novel - that's happened through my whole career. Hilary Mantel historical-novelswritingthinking If the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set. The monarchy is mildly interesting and largely harmless. I can't find I can get very heated about it. In the next couple of generations, it is bound to go. There is so much else in the world that is more interesting. Hilary Mantel couplemindinteresting History is a set of skills rather than a narrative. Hilary Mantel narrativeskills When I began to read as an adult, I read almost exclusively novelists of a generation back. I did the Russians, then I started getting more up to date. When you become published and become a reviewer, piles of books come along and you are pushed by fashion and what you are commissioned to do. Hilary Mantel novelistsfashionbook [Margaret Thatcher] was always talking about what the prudent housewife should do and what the prudent housewife knew. Hilary Mantel prudentshouldtalking Watching live actors onstage, in something that changes night by night, real people picking up cues from each other, it concentrates you on the process rather than the result. Hilary Mantel realnightpeople One of the frustrations of someone like Thomas Cromwell is that, before they step into the light of history, and become extremely well documented, they are not known. A king might be well documented but not everyone. Hilary Mantel frustrationlightkings It's complementary. It's fairly clear where the boundaries are. When I start telling you the contents of his head, I am making it up. But I try to make it up based on what is on the record. So even my wildest speculations [on Thomas Cromwell] will have a root somewhere. Hilary Mantel recordsrootstrying In terms of essays, I would say Oliver Sacks. His breadth of hard knowledge and imagination and empathy seems to constitute the perfect mind to me. Hilary Mantel empathyimaginationperfect I do myself think that history is a set of skills rather than a narrative. Hilary Mantel narrativeskillsthinking It was unfortunate for other women who might come after [Margaret Thatcher] that the first woman to become prime minister was a male impersonator. Hilary Mantel malesmightfirsts The worship of Thomas More goes beyond Catholics. Hilary Mantel catholicworship [Margaret Thatcher] said there was no thing such as society. This is what I find so interesting psychologically. Where did she come from? She had no mother. Her father came from a very identifiable background: religious, highly conformist. Hilary Mantel religiousmotherfather
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