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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Novelists may lack the perspective to comment on current events, as their insights often come from a different realm of understanding.
In this quote, Hilary Mantel suggests that novelists, who often engage in creative and imaginative writing, may not be suited to analyze or comment on the immediate events of the day. Their reflections and portrayals are rooted in deeper narratives and contexts that may not align with the fast-paced, often superficial nature of news reporting. Over time, many novelists come to realize that their artistic interpretations may not hold the necessary relevance or authority in the realm of journalistic commentary.
Themes
NovelistsCommentaryNewsPerspectiveLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of writers in society, this quote can highlight the disconnect between literature and current events.
More from Hilary Mantel
All quotes →History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it.
Hilary MantelRead
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.
Hilary MantelRead
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.
Hilary MantelRead
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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