37 Hilary Mantel Quotes for You to Enjoy

Hilary Mantel

English Writer

Born: Jul 6, 1952

Been Life People Think Writing You

Related authors: Arthur C. Clarke D. H. Lawrence Douglas Adams Gilbert K. Chesterton John Ruskin Ricky Gervais Rudyard Kipling Thomas Paine

Sometimes you buy a book, powerfully drawn to it, but then it just sits on the shelf. Maybe you flick through it, the ghost of your original purpose at your elbow, but it's not so much rereading as re-dusting. Then one day you pick it up, take notice of the contents; your inner life realigns. Hilary Mantel

Life Buy Day You Book Sometimes Ghost One Day Drawn Purpose Through Take Pick Shelf Contents Up Maybe Just Elbow Then Much Notice Your Flick Original Inner Inner Life

I am very happy in second-hand bookshops; would a gardener not be happy in a garden? Hilary Mantel

Be Happy Happy Garden Second-Hand Would Am Very Gardener

Fear of commitment lies behind the fear of writing. Hilary Mantel

Commitment Writing Fear Lies Behind

You can control and censor a child's reading, but you can't control her interpretations; no one can guess how a message that to adults seems banal or ridiculous or outmoded will alter itself and evolve inside the darkness of a child's heart. 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 have to travel. Hilary Mantel

Work You Travel Input See Seemingly Individual Leaves Hear Passive Taste Fiction While Us Much Your Chair

But an experienced reader is also a self-aware and critical reader. I can't remember ever reading a story without judging it. Hilary Mantel

Remember Reading Critical Also Reader Judging Without Experienced Story Ever

Novels teach you that actions have consequences. They help you grow up. Hilary Mantel

You Consequences Up Teach Help Actions Grow Grow Up Novels

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

Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep. Hilary Mantel

Insights Arrive Go Move Notebooks Desk

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

Book Answers Questions Should Novel

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