Hilary Mantel Quotes

I have great respect for the past.

I knew I could not cope with the future unless I was able to rediscover the past.

Things that came before, people and things and experiences - that does mean something to me. It doesn't mean I don't embrace the new, but I don't forget the past, either.

Stories are like that. Like cities, they are built on the stones and bones of the past.

The past is where its supposed to be.

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.

The past is only the present become invisible and mute; and because it is invisible and mute, its memorized glances and its murmurs are infinitely precious. We are tomorrow's past.

We can revere our past, but we cannot re-capture it.

The past is a present force.

All great people glorify their history and look back upon their early attainments with a spiritualized vision.

How will we know it’s us without our past?

There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it.

There is a palpable sense of history in the homes that I choose to occupy. I think that's one of the reasons I gravitate towards old homes: I really like that sense of history and that sense that I am one step in a very long process that trails out in both directions around me - before me and ahead of me.

It's where you're from - it's your roots - and that's why I like to get back to Nacogdoches in the offseason and hang out with my family. To me, it keeps me grounded and reminds me of how far I've come.

Sometimes, to move into the future, you must go back the past.

I was always attracted to the past as a kid.

I think the beautiful thing about the past is that it leads you to the present.

In my view, you can't go to the future if you haven't come from the past.

I'm English and love England. Whenever I'm there, I'm always seeing the present but feeling its past.

I have not lived so abundantly, full of family, full of continuity and history.

We should not look down on our first ancestors.

In some sense, I'm a romantic. I like the idea of organic history and tradition.

We are all part of a tradition, at least we depend on the past.

I do everything I do to pay tribute to my great-grandfather.

When you begin to think about the past, you realize how much of it is lost to us.