For what's the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before.

'Show up at the desk' is one of the first rules of writing, but for 'Wolf Hall' I was about 30 years late.

I only became a novelist because I thought I had missed my chance to become a historian.

My first book was a historical novel. I started writing in 1974. In those days, historical novels meant ladies with swelling bosoms on the cover. Basically, it meant historical romance. It was not respectable as a genre.

I'm one of these children who grew up at the knee of my grandmother and her elder sister, listening to very old people talk about their memories.

I think it took me half a page of 'Wolf Hall' to think: 'This is the novel I should have been writing all along.'

She is very plain. What does Henry see in her?'" "He thinks she's stupid. He finds it restful.