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 Billy, chained to the stake, had recanted as the fire was set. It wasn't enough for him to take Billy's life away; he had to take his death too.

Wolf Hall