Beneath every history, another history.

- Hilary Mantel

The word 'however' is like an imp coiled beneath your chair. It induces ink to form words you have not yet seen, and lines to march across the page a…

- Hilary Mantel

The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, i…

- Hilary Mantel

Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.

- Hilary Mantel

A novel should be a book of questions, not a book of answers.

- Hilary Mantel

Every leader operates under the threat of assassination.

- Hilary Mantel

Feminism hasn't failed, it's just never been tried.

- Hilary Mantel

When people begin to talk about "our island story" my hackles rise. It is deluded and conservative.

- Hilary Mantel

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have va…

- Hilary Mantel