You mustn't stand about. Come home with me to dinner.’ ‘No.’ More shakes his head. ‘I would rather be blown around on the river and go home hungry. If I could trust you only to put food in my mouth – but you will put words into it. Hilary Mantel More Quotes by Hilary Mantel More Quotes From Hilary Mantel 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 reviewers fashion book My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant. Hilary Mantel knights ambition boys I think it took me half a page of 'Wolf Hall' to think: 'This is the novel I should have been writing all along.' Hilary Mantel should-have writing thinking I think I would have been a reasonably good lawyer. I have a faculty for making sense of mountains of information. Hilary Mantel mountain information thinking The writer I adore is Ivy Compton-Burnett.I couldn't get more than a few pages in when I first read her. In many ways, she is very clumsy and her plots are rubbish. But we don't read her for that. There are pages and pages of dialogue. What it requires is real effort and attention. Hilary Mantel effort ivy real I spend a lot of my time talking to the dead, but since I get paid for it, no one thinks I'm mad. Hilary Mantel mad talking thinking I dislike pastiche; it attracts attention to the language only. Hilary Mantel pastiche language attention I didn't cry much after I was 35, but staggered stony-faced into middle age, a handkerchief still in my bag just in case. Hilary Mantel bags cry age [Margaret Thatcher] assumed somehow that this would get the woman voter and all those juvenile male voters who wanted a well-regulated household with a woman who knew what she should be doing. Hilary Mantel males voters should I am usually protective of my work, not showing it to anyone until it has been redrafted and polished. Hilary Mantel polished protective has-beens History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it. Hilary Mantel behinds littles past Hindsight is the historian's necessary vice. Hilary Mantel historian hindsight vices For many imaginative writers, working for the press is a fact of their life. But it's best not to like it too much. Hilary Mantel imaginative too-much facts Fear of commitment lies behind the fear of writing. Hilary Mantel writing lying commitment As a writer, you owe it to yourself not to get stuck in a rut of looking at the world in a certain way. Hilary Mantel ruts way world Imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you. Hilary Mantel delay procrastination imagination A novel should be a book of questions, not a book of answers. Hilary Mantel should answers book I am sure that all politicians seek the home connection with the voter. But [Margaret Thatcher] carried it to extremes. Hilary Mantel voters connections home History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him. Hilary Mantel events giving history I would have been a disaster as a career politician. I would never have toed a party line. Hilary Mantel lines party careers
