Life being so short, and the possible books to write so many, it’s good to function by night as well as by day; but would anybody become a writer if they realised at the outset what the working hours were? Hilary Mantel Read Quote
Novelists, it seems to me, are the very last people who should be asked to comment on the news of the day, and sooner or later, when they have been pilloried for their views, most of them recognise this. Hilary Mantel Read Quote
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 Read Quote
Show up at the desk’ is one of the first rules of writing, but for ‘Wolf Hall’ I was about 30 years late. Hilary Mantel Read Quote
I am usually protective of my work, not showing it to anyone until it has been redrafted and polished. Hilary Mantel Read Quote
Wolf Hall’ attempts to duplicate not the historian’s chronology but the way memory works: in leaps, loops, flashes. Hilary Mantel Read Quote
When you get fat, you get a new personality. You can’t help it. Complete strangers ascribe it to you. Hilary Mantel Read Quote
Writing comes from that territory of being invalidated. But I had a sense of purpose, too. I wanted to stop apologising for my health, and I thought I might do some good. Hilary Mantel Read Quote
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 Read Quote
