I am not as I seem to be,
Nor when I smile I am not glad,
A thrall although you count me free
I, most in mirth, most pensive-sad;
I smile to shade my bitter spite

“What you suffer now is the absence of a spell. I think I shudder that you caused me so to understand it for a little while, to know it as if I were a different being than I am.”

“You have to suffer through this emptiness,” I said, “and find what impels you to continue.”

The Vampire Lestat 

“Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once.”

“We would make our heroes shallow. We would make them brittle. It is they who must remind of us the true meaning of strength.” 

“I cannot overcome this notion that I’ve died, ” she said. “That I am utterly cut off from all living creatures. I can taste, I can see, I can feel. I can drink blood. But I am like something that cannot be seen, cannot affect things.”

The Vampire Lestat