Thomas Cromwell Quotes

There's a feeling of power in reserve, a power that drives right through the bone, like the shiver you sense in the shaft of an axe when you take it into your hand. You can strike, or you can not strike, and if you choose to hold back the blow, you can still feel inside you the resonance of the omitted thing.

~ Hilary Mantel

Fantasy is unconstrained by truth.

~ Hilary Mantel

In the forest you may find yourself lost, without companions. You may come to a river which is not on a map. You may lose sight of your quarry, and forget why you are there. You may meet a dwarf, or the living Christ, or an old enemy of yours; or a new enemy, one you do not know until you see his face appear between the rustling leaves, and see the glint of his dagger. You may find a woman asleep in a bower of leaves. For a moment, before you don’t recognise her, you will think she is someone you know.

~ Hilary Mantel

His suppressed grief becomes anger. But what can he do with anger? It must also be suppressed.

~ Hilary Mantel

I picked up a snake once. In Italy.Why did you do that?For a bet.Was it poisonous?We didn't know. That was the point of the bet.Did it bite you?Of course.Why of course?It wouldn't be much of a story, would it? If I'd put it down unharmed, and away it slid?

~ Hilary Mantel

He knows different now. It's the living that chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones thrust into their rattling mouths: we edit their writings, we rewrite their lives. Thomas More had spread the rumor that Little Bilney, chained to the stake, had recanted as the fire was set. It wasn't enough for him to take Bilney's life away; he had to take his death too.

~ Hilary Mantel

The gift blesses the giver.

~ Hilary Mantel