“[Margaret Thatcher] aroused such strong loathing in so many people. That's the fact that interests me.” PeopleFactsStrongInterestLoathing Author:Hilary Mantel
“I believe this was [Margaret Thatcher] estimate of the voter: "These people are so stupid that they will vote for me because they think I know how to run the household."” PeopleThinkingKnowsBelieveRunningI BelieveKnow HowStupidVoteVotersHouseholdVote For Me Author:Hilary Mantel
“When people begin to talk about "our island story" my hackles rise. It is deluded and conservative.” PeopleStoriesConservativeIslandsDeluded Author:Hilary Mantel
“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.” PeopleIfsWellsMadeLostCausesProudMade ItBurningHallsLost LoveHereticAstonishmentBritsLost Cause Author:Hilary Mantel
“People will identify with a persecuted minority without asking themselves what they are identifying with.” PeopleAskingMinoritiesIdentifyingPersecuted Author:Hilary Mantel
“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.” PeopleRealNightActorsProcessResults Author:Hilary Mantel
“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.” PeopleWayLooksSaidMightMovingSidesLevelsRecordsJudgmentNovelistsInterpretationGapsHistorianDocumentsBiographers Author:Hilary Mantel
“People who wrote literary novels about the past probably didn't want them pegged as historical fiction. Certainly that was true in England.” PeopleWantPastFictionNovelEnglandHistoricalHistorical Fiction Author:Hilary Mantel
“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.” PeopleChildrenMemoriesListeningGrewGrew UpKneesGrandmotherMy GrandmotherOld PeopleElders Author:Hilary Mantel
“Like a historian, I interpret, select, discard, shape, simplify. Unlike a historian, I make up people's thoughts.” PeopleShapesHistorianSelectSimplify Author:Hilary Mantel
“Like every writer, I'm drawn by unlikely juxtapositions, precisely-dated and once-only collisions between people from different worlds.” PeopleWorldDifferentUnlikelyDifferent WorldsCollisionJuxtaposition Author:Hilary Mantel
“Much historical fiction that centers on real people has always been deficient in information, lacking in craft and empty in affect.” PeopleRealFictionInformationEmptyHistoricalCraftsHistorical FictionLacking Author:Hilary Mantel
“If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be.” PeopleIfsShouldProblemLostSleepWalksPartyExerciseDrawsSticksStuckGet AwayPieDesksTelephonesListening To MusicBathsGoing To SleepWriter's Block Author:Hilary Mantel
“When narratives fracture, when words fail, I take consolation from the part of my life that always works: the stationery order. The mail-order stationery people supply every need from royal blue Quink to a dazzling variety of portable hard drives.” PeopleNeedsHardOrderFailingBlueVarietyNarrativeMailRoyalConsolationDazzlingFractureStationeryRoyal Blue Author:Hilary Mantel
“I was the subject of an experiment in love. I lived my life under her gaze, undergoing certain trials for her so that she would not have to undergo them for herself. But, how are our certainties forged, except by the sweat and tears of other people? If your parents don't teach you how to live; you learn it from books; and clever people watch you learn from your mistakes.” PeopleIfsBookCertainParentMistakeWatchesTeachSubjectsTearsCleverTrialsExperimentsCertaintySweatForgedLearn From Your MistakesSweat And Tears Author:Hilary Mantel
“It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.” PeopleFactsDesireKnowledgeFantasyAbsenceGapsAnticipation Author:Hilary Mantel
“At New Year's he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to eat with, not to stick in people.” PeopleYearsUseGivenRocksSticksHandleSilverNew YearCrystalsForks Author:Hilary Mantel
“Some readers read a book as if it were an instruction manual, expecting to understand everything first time, but of course when you write, you put into every sentence an overflow of meaning, and you create in every sentence as many resonances and double meanings and ambiguities as you can possibly pack in there, so that people can read it again and get something new each time.” PeopleIfsWritingFirstsBookCoursesReaderFirst TimeSentencesSomething NewInstructionExpectingPacksAmbiguityManualsResonanceOverflowDouble Meaning Author:Hilary Mantel
“It is better not to try people, not to force them to desperation. Make them prosper; out of superfluidity, they will be generous. Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.” PeopleTryingForceMonstersMannersGentleGenerousDesperationBellyFamine Author:Hilary Mantel
“When you are writing laws you are testing words to find their utmost power. Like spells, they have to make things happen in the real world, and like spells, they only work if people believe in them.” PeopleIfsWorldWritingBelieveRealHappensLawThings HappenSpellsReal WorldTestingMake Things Happen Author:Hilary Mantel
“Florence and Milan had given him ideas more flexible than those of people who'd stayed at home.” PeopleIdeasHomeGivenTravelFlexibleFlorenceMilan Author:Hilary Mantel
