I would have been a disaster as a career politician. I would never have toed a party line. Hilary Mantel careerdisasterline Change image and share on social
If you have a good story idea, don't assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible. Hilary Mantel assumeflexibleform Change image and share on social
When you get fat, you get a new personality. You can't help it. Complete strangers ascribe it to you. Hilary Mantel ascribecompletefat Change image and share on social
Since I was a very small child, I've had a kind of reverence for the past, and I felt a very intimate connection with it. Hilary Mantel childconnectionfelt Change image and share on social
What really disconcerts commentators, I suspect, is that when they read historical fiction, they feel their own lack of education may be exposed; they panic, because they don't know which bits are true. Hilary Mantel bitcommentatordisconcert share on social
When you have committed enough words to paper, you feel you have a spine stiff enough to stand up in the wind. But when you stop writing, you find that's all you are - a spine, a row of rattling vertebrae, dried out like an old quill pen. Hilary Mantel commitdryfeel share on social
Fiction leaves us so much work to do, allows the individual so much input; you have to see, you have to hear, you have to taste the madeleine, and while you are seemingly passive in your chair, you have to travel. Hilary Mantel chairfictionhear share on social
Much historical fiction that centers on real people has always been deficient in information, lacking in craft and empty in affect. Hilary Mantel affectcentercraft Change image and share on social
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 owerutstick Change image and share on social
It follows that if you are not a mother you are not a grandmother. Your life has become unpunctuated, whereas the lives of other women around you have these distinct phases. Hilary Mantel distinctgrandmotherlife Change image and share on social
