The whole theme of Interview with the Vampire was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing immortal simply to ask, What is the meaning of what we are?
Anne Rice
I know nothing of God or the Devil. I have never seen a vision nor learned a secret that would damn or save my soul.
The only pain in pleasure is the pleasure of the pain.
To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.
I love New Orleans physically. I love the trees and the balmy air and the beautiful days. I have a beautiful house here.
To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.
I'm always looking, and I'm always asking questions.
What I did was take the Jesus of the Gospels, the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin Mary, and sought to make Him utterly believable, a vital breathing character.
We have to become saints. We have to become like Christ. Anything less is simply not enough.
I'm fascinated by almost any mythology that I can get my hands on.
When you make his sandwiches, put a sexy or loving note in his lunch box.
I thought The Shining was just absolutely wonderful. Stephen King reaches all kinds of people. In the beginning he was just dismissed out of hand, which was terrible.
I can't get very far away from Christianity, I can't get very far away from the angels and the saints. I work them in always, in some way.
Stephen King in many respects is a wonderful writer. He has made a contribution. People in the future will be able to pick up Stephen King's books and learn a lot about who we were by reading those books.
Evil is always possible. Goodness is a difficulty.
I feel like an outsider, and I always will feel like one. I've always felt that I wasn't a member of any particular group.
I read The Old Curiosity Shop before I began Blackwood Farm. I was amazed at the utter madness in that book.
I enjoy the Web site a lot and I like being able to talk to my readers. I've always had a very close relationship with them.
The vampires have always been metaphors for me. They've always been vehicles through which I can express things I have felt very, very deeply.
I was obsessed with religious questions, the basics: Why are we here? Why is the world so beautiful?
The thing should have plot and character, beginning, middle and end. Arouse pity and then have a catharsis. Those were the best principles I was ever taught.
I can't keep up with Stephen King's output.
I wish we had more visible Christian and Catholic leaders who talked about love.
That process by which you become a writer is a pretty lonely one. We don't have a group apprenticeship like a violinist might training for an orchestra.
When I write something, every word of it is meant. I can't say it enough.
I claim Dickens as a mentor. He's my teacher. He's one of my driving forces.
It is tragic that many in America think of us - Christians - as being people who hate others.
I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.
We're frightened of what makes us different.
The world doesn't need any more mediocrity or hedged bets.
I broke with my religion in college.
The most difficult novel I have had to write in terms of just getting it done was The Vampire Lestat. It took a year to write.
Obsession led me to write. It's been that way with every book I've ever written. I become completely consumed by a theme, by characters, by a desire to meet a challenge.
I'm going to keep on dealing with the supernatural in a lot of ways.
We need to stop fighting Christian against Christian. I have no time for anything but trying to love other people. That is a full-time job.
I do not read the ancient languages, but I am beginning to study Greek.
My own funeral, I'd like to be laid out in a coffin in my own house. I would like my coffin to be put in the double parlor, and I would like all the flowers to be white.
I do want to go another way - to write something completely different.
Writers, as they gain success, feel like outsiders because writers don't come together in real groups.
You can look at the New York Times Bestseller List and you can be pretty sure that the writers on that list don't know each other very well.
I gave up on the big screen. The Witching Hour was at Warner Bros. for 10 years and it just didn't work out.
I'm definitely more influenced by European writers than I am by American writers, there's no doubt about that.
Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ASK. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds.
I want to love all the children of God - Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist - everyone. I want to love gay Christians and straight Christians.
Invest in a feather duster - the possibilities are endless.
You reach deep down and bring up what feels absolutely authentic to you as you move along with the book, but you don't know everything about it. You can't.
There may be writing groups where people meet but it's occasional. You really do it all at your own computer or your own typewriter by yourself.
Re-telling the Christian story is the essence of my vocation. That has been going on since the Evangelists in one form or another.
Obviously, a writer can't know everything about what she writes. It's impossible.
