It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells. by Hilary Mantel

It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells.

Hilary Mantel

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One of the ideals [Margaret Thatcher] grew up with was self-denial and postponement of gratification, and yet she went about to create a greedy, short-term society. It is a paradox.

greedy denial self

To me, Hillary [Clinton] looks alright. She looks like the kind of woman I admire. She doesn't seem to have distorted her essential nature.

essentials kind looks

[Margaret] Thatcher could fake her class background, but she coul... by Hilary Mantel

[Margaret] Thatcher could fake her class background, but she couldn't fake the quality of her mind.

fake mind class

Every leader operates under the threat of assassination. by Hilary Mantel

Every leader operates under the threat of assassination.

assassination threat leader

I will get into trouble, I am sure, because since my Kate Middleton speech and before, certain papers were after me. I am not saying, however, that it would have been moral or right to assassinate Mrs. [Margaret] Thatcher, but I know it will be read that way. I know it will cause a problem.

speech paper way

When people begin to talk about "our island story" my hackles ris... by Hilary Mantel

When people begin to talk about "our island story" my hackles rise. It is deluded and conservative.

stories islands people

I think if the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set.

tomorrow mind thinking

I think the monarchy today 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.

couple interesting thinking

There is so much else in the world that is more interesting [ tha... by Hilary Mantel

There is so much else in the world that is more interesting [ than monarchy].

monarchy world interesting

In order to successfully impersonate men, the woman [Margaret Tha... by Hilary Mantel

In order to successfully impersonate men, the woman [Margaret Thatcher] launched a war.

When I came to write my Thomas Cromwell books, I moved onto the center ground of English history, but I was never there before. I didn't feel it was my history particularly, coming from Northern Britain, being of Irish extraction, being a cradle Catholic. The image of England I grew up with felt somewhere else. There was an official England in postcards, but it wasn't one I had visited. But I decided to march onto the center ground and occupy it whether it was mine or not.

somewhere-else writing book

To my astonishment, when Wolf Hall came out, people asked if I made it up - [Thomas More] burning of heretics. It was well documented. And he was proud of it! The Brits love lost causes.

burning lost-love people

For me, it is about using everything that is there and using the gaps in the record, figuring out why the gaps might be there. And then when you move on to the level of what historians said, laying the interpretations side by side. You also have to look back at the documents and make your own judgments. What the record says and what people say about it. A novelist can fill the gaps in a way that a biographer cannot.

novelists people moving

I love playing Mary, and I love being part of a show that for all of us has been really special, none of us ever imagined how huge a success it would become. Why would I want to leave that?

There are plenty of books that tell you how to become a writer, but not one that suggests how, if you want a normal life, you might reverse the process.

you process want life

Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to a place, or things alter around them, that's the point to step back and fill in the details of their world.

step change character world

When I wrote about the French Revolution, I didn't choose to write about aristocrats; I chose characters who began their lives in provincial obscurity.

choose write who revolution

Writers displace their anxiety on to the tools of the trade. It's better to say that you haven't got the right pencil than to say you can't write, or to blame your computer for losing your chapter than face up to your feeling that it's better lost.

face feeling you losing

When you write, you are not either sex. But when you're read you... by Hilary Mantel

When you write, you are not either sex. But when you're read you are definitely gendered.

either write you sex

I spend a great deal of time on research, on finding all the available accounts of a scene or incident, finding out all the background details and the biographies of the people involved there, and I try to run up all the accounts side by side to see where the contradictions are, and to look where things have gone missing.

great look time people