“I am very happy in second-hand bookshops; would a gardener not be happy in a garden?” Quote by Hilary Mantel
“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.” StillsAgeCasesMiddleCryBagsMiddle AgesHandkerchiefs Author:Hilary Mantel
“I dislike pastiche; it attracts attention to the language only.” LanguageAttentionDislikePastiche Author:Hilary Mantel
“I spend a lot of my time talking to the dead, but since I get paid for it, no one thinks I'm mad.” ThinkingTalkingPaidMadMy Time Author:Hilary Mantel
“I think I would have been a reasonably good lawyer. I have a faculty for making sense of mountains of information.” ThinkingHas BeensInformationMountainLawyerMake SenseFacultyGood Lawyer Author:Hilary Mantel
“I think it took me half a page of 'Wolf Hall' to think: 'This is the novel I should have been writing all along.'” ThinkingShouldWritingHas BeensHalfNovelPagesShould HaveHallsShould Have Been Author:Hilary Mantel
“I would have been a disaster as a career politician. I would never have toed a party line.” Has BeensLinesPartyCareersPoliticianDisasterCareer Politicians Author:Hilary Mantel
“I'm a very organised and rational and linear thinker and you have to stop all that to write a novel.” WritingNovelRationalThinkerLinearOrganised Author:Hilary Mantel
“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.” IfsMayIdeasPlayStoriesFormAssumingNarrativeProseFlexibleGood StoryScreenplays Author:Hilary Mantel
“Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep.” MovingHalfInsightDesksNotebook 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