Like a historian, I interpret, select, discard, shape, simplify. Unlike a historian, I make up people's thoughts. Hilary Mantel discardhistorianinterpret Change image and share on social
History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it. Hilary Mantel changehistorypast Change image and share on social
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 factimaginativelife Change image and share on social
I'm one of these children who grew up at the knee of my grandmother and her elder sister, listening to very old people talk about their memories. Hilary Mantel childeldergrandmother Change image and share on social
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 agebagcase Change image and share on social
I once stole a book. It was really just the once, and at the time I called it borrowing. It was 1970, and the book, I could see by its lack of date stamps, had been lying unappreciated on the shelves of my convent school library since its publication in 1945. Hilary Mantel bookborrowcall share on social
Back in my 20s, when I wrote 'A Place of Greater Safety,' the French Revolution novel, I thought, 'I'll always have to write historical novels because I can't do plots.' But in the six years of writing that novel, I actually learned to write, to invent things. Hilary Mantel 20sbackfrench share on social
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 contextelderequally share on social
You can control and censor a child's reading, but you can't control her interpretations; no one can guess how a message that to adults seems banal or ridiculous or outmoded will alter itself and evolve inside the darkness of a child's heart. Hilary Mantel adultalterbanal 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
