The experienced writer says to the anguished novice: 'Just do it; get something, anything, on to the screen or page, just establish a flow of words, and criticise them later.' You give this advice but can't always take it.
Hilary MantelRead
In my 20s I was in constant pain from undiagnosed endometriosis. With no prospect of a cure, I decided I needed a career - writing - that could accommodate being ill.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the struggle of living with illness while pursuing a career that allows for flexibility.
Hilary Mantel's quote highlights her experience of living with undiagnosed endometriosis in her twenties, which brought constant pain and challenges. Rather than succumbing to her circumstances, she chose to pursue a writing career that could fit around her health issues, demonstrating resilience and adaptability in the face of adversity.
Themes
EndometriosisHealthWritingCareerResilience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage individuals facing health challenges to pursue their passions.
More from Hilary Mantel
All quotes →History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it.
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Why are we so attached to the severities of the past? Why are we so proud of having endured our fathers and our mothers, the fireless days and the meatless days, the cold winters and the sharp tongues? It's not as if we had a choice.
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He is careful to deny responsibility for September, but he does not, you notice, condemn the killings. He also refrains from killing words, sparing Roland and Buzot, as if they were beneath his notice. August 10 was illegal, he says; so too was the taking of the Bastille. What account can we take of that, in revolution? It is the nature of revolutions to break laws. We are not justices of the peace; we are legislators to a new world.
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It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.
Hilary MantelRead
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 MantelRead
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