“ Is a woman bound to wifely obedience, when the result will be to turn her out of the estate of wife? Hilary Mantel
“ He says, this silence of More's, it was never really silence, was it? It was loud with his treason; it was quibbling as far as quibbles would serve him, it was demurs and cavils, suave ambiguities. It… Hilary Mantel
“ He saw that it was the gaps that were important, the spaces between the threads which made the pattern, and not the threads themselves. Hilary Mantel
“ Have you ever observed that when a man gets a son he takes all the credit, and when he gets a daughter he blames his wife? And if they do not breed at all, we say it is because her womb is barren. We… Hilary Mantel
“ Your fear is, that if you marry Adèle, you will love her. If you have children, you will love them more than anything else in the world, more than patriotism, more than democracy. If your children gro… Hilary Mantel
“ He reaches for his pen. He yawns and puts it down and picks it up again. I shall be found dead at my desk, he thinks, like the poet Petrarch. The poet wrote many unsent letters: he wrote to Cicero, wh… Hilary Mantel
“ Cardinal Campeggio has implored Katherine to bow to the king's will, accept that her marriage is invalid and retire to a convent. Certainly, she says sweetly, she will become a nun: if the king will b… Hilary Mantel
“ History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it. Hilary Mantel
“ Life do your worst; we are plump of knee and mild of eye, we are douce, glib and blithe; we inherit the semi, while others inherit the wind. Hilary Mantel
“ When Gregory says, ‘Are they guilty?’ he means, ‘Did they do it?’ But when he says, ‘Are they guilty?’ he means, ‘Did the court find them so?’ The lawyer’s world is entire unto itself, the human pared… Hilary Mantel
“ We don’t have to invite pain in, he thinks. It’s waiting for us: sooner rather than later. Hilary Mantel
“ Talking to Robespierre, one tried to make the right noises; but what is right, these days? Address yourself to the militant, and you find a pacifist giving you a reproachful look. Address yourself to… Hilary Mantel
“ Fiction leaves us so much work to do, allows the individual so much input; you have to see, you have to hear, you have to taste the madeleine, and while you are seemingly passive in your chair, you ha… Hilary Mantel
“ Once you're labeled as mentally ill, and that's in your medical notes, then anything you say can be discounted as an artifact of your mental illness. Hilary Mantel
“ There is a pause, while she turns the great pages of her volume of rage, and puts her finger on just the right word. Hilary Mantel
“ The story of my own childhood is a complicated sentence that I am always trying to finish, to finish and put behind me. It resists finishing, and partly this is because words are not enough; my early… Hilary Mantel
“ The child Elizabeth is wrapped tightly in layers, her fists hidden: just as well, she looks as if she would strike you. Ginger bristles poke from beneath her cap, and her eyes are vigilant; he has nev… Hilary Mantel
