He once thought it himself, that he might die with grief: for his wife, his daughters, his sisters, his father and master the cardinal. But pulse, obdurate, keeps its rhythm. You think you cannot keep breathing, but your ribcage has other ideas, rising and falling, emitting sighs. You must thrive in spite of yourself; and so that you may do it, God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone.

History is a set of skills rather than a narrative.

Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

One of the frustrations of someone like Thomas Cromwell is that, before they step into the light of history, and become extremely well documented, they are not known. A king might be well documented but not everyone.

[Margaret Thatcher] was always talking about what the prudent housewife should do and what the prudent housewife knew.

I can't think of any male politician who magnetizes love and hate - mainly hate - the way [Margaret Thatcher] did.

To my astonishment, when Wolf Hall came out, people asked if I made it up - [Thomas More] burning of heretics. It was well documented. And he was proud of it! The Brits love lost causes.