Hilary Mantel Quotes

The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is to write the book that you would want to read, and hope other people agree.

I started writing to please myself, a story I would like to read, and that is still true.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy.

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.

I don't write anything if I'm not agreeable and liking it. I'm not one of these slavers who wads up paper. It comes or it doesn't.

I don't really think about genre. I like to write books that I'd love to read myself.

When I'm the one who sits down and looks at the blank page and writes it out all the way, then I'll call it my script.

I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.

I prefer writing originals.

I love writing books - I really do. If I could just quit everything and work on a book every day, I would love that most.

I write poetry anyway and have for years and years. For me, putting fiction and poetry together is like the best of both worlds.

I think one of the keys to better writing is releasing all of your ideas and to not be afraid. Dream big. This could be the greatest novel in the world you know.

Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.

I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

I really write for people.

Anybody who likes writing a book is an idiot. Because it's impossible; it's like having a homework assignment every stinking day until it's done. And by the time you get it in, it's done and you're sitting there reading it, and you realize the 12,000 things you didn't do. I mean, writing isn't fun. It's never been fun.

I want to write more, because I think I've got a story to tell.

I think the most important lesson isn't necessarily to try and write a different book every time, or to try and brand yourself and write one specific kind of book, but to write the kind of books you love to read.

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write.

It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing.

I write what I'm interested in.

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it.