Anne Rice Quotes

You see,' [Armand] said, 'killing other vampires is very exciting; that is why it is forbidden under penalty of death.

A perfectly evil Devil makes even less sense than a perfect God.

Why does shame and self-loathing become cruelty to the innocent ?

When we love and want nothing but good for that person, it's one of the greatest gifts we possess.

For me, places have a tremendous impact. I fall in love with places. All of life seems different in different places.

Heaven would be Hell in no time if every cruel, selfish, vicious soul went to Heaven.

In spite of all the refinements of civilization that conspired to make art--the dizzying perfection of the string quartet or the sprawling grandeur of Fragonard's canvases--beauty was savage. It was as dangerous and lawless as the earth had been eons before man had one single coherent thought in his head or wrote codes of conduct on tablets of clay. Beauty was a Savage Garden.

Evil is just a point of view

Motivated employees are crucial to a company's success.

when we are weary, we speak lovingly of dreams as if they embodied our true deisres-What we WOULD have when that which we DO have so sorely disappoints us

an intoxication with forbidden knowledge in which the natural things become unimportant.

Every moment must be first known and then savored.

Writers, as they gain success, feel like outsiders because writers don't come together in real groups.

And then there came the pounding of another drum, as if another giant were coming yards behind him, and each giant, intent on his own drum, gave no notice to the rhythm of the other. The sound grew louder and louder until it seemed to fill not just my hearing but all my senses, to be throbbing in my lips and fingers, in the flesh of my temples, in my veins.

In the chapel you prayed to be a saint and now I will make you a god.

I saw the Light,saw the myriad spirits flying loose up the Tunnel towards the celestial blaze, the Tunnel perfectly round and widening as they rose and for one blessed moment, one blessed tiny instant, the songs of Heaven resounded down the tunnel as if its curves were not made of wind but of something solid that could echo these ethereal songs, and their organized rhythm, their heartbreaking beauty piercing the catastrophic suffering of this place-Lestat

Phil was mumbling that Reuben might become a writer after all and writers had a way of "redeeming everything that ever happens to them.

I kept glancing at him and away from him, as if his green eyes were hurting me. In modern parlance he was a laser beam. Deadly and delicate he seemed. His victims had always loved him. And I had always loved him, hadn't I, no matter what happened, and how strong could love grow if you had eternity to nourish it, and it took only these few moments in time to renew its momentum, its heat? -Lestat

I don't believe in anything, Mother," I said. "You told Armand long ago that you believe you'll find answers in the great jungles and forests; that the stars will finally reveal a vast truth. But I don't believe in anything. And that makes me stronger than you think

Who has a right to tell me I have no gift, no talent, no passion ...' he murmured. 'Why do people say those things to you when youre young? Doesn't seem fair, does it?' 'No, darling, it's not fair,'she said. 'But the mystery is why you listen.

Oh to have you with me, to have you here, not to be alone, but to be with you, my beauty, you of all souls! You.

My last sunrise. That morning, I was not yet a vampire. And I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely; yet I do not think I remember any other sunrise before it.

You were the vampire in my dream. My perfect one.

Sometimes dreams show me that my writing should go deeper. Dreams have not so much changed my work as deepened it.

Yes, I know," "And I love to hear you say it, Louis. I need to hear you say it. I don't think anyone will ever say it quite like you do. Come on, say it again. I'm a perfect devil. Tell me how bad I am. It makes me feel so good!

The world changes, we do not, therein lies the irony that kills us.

I know nothing, because I know too much, and understand not nearly enough and never will.

When you think night and day and every moment only of pleasing me, things will be very easy for you.

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.

A perfect world or a world destroyed, one or the other- someday will come the end of hell.

I have to move away from organized religion. The toxic confusion and anger I was feeling in church had become too great.

But just remember, life without me would be even more unbearable.

When you find out there is no ultimate good and evil in which you can place your faith, the world does not fall apart at the seams. It simply means that every decision is more difficult, more critical, because you are creating the good and evil yourself and they are very real.

And I loved this moment for all it's pain...We seemed for a moment like two parts of the same thing.

That was my nature - going from temptation after temptation, not to sin, but to be redeemed.

I'm speaking of the character of human beings, not what they believe in. I'm speaking of those who won't accept a useless life just because they were born to it. I mean those who would be something better. They work, they sacrifice, they do things..." He was moved by this, and I was a little surprised that I'd said it. Yet I felt I'd had hurt him somehow. "There is blessedness in that." I said. "There's sanctity. And God or no God, there is goodness in it. I know this the way I know the mountains are out there, that the stars shine.

Without memory there can be no insight. Without love, there can be no appreciation.

I think there is a modern temper. The authority figures we revered in the past are all up for grabs - they're gone. We are groping for meaning in a world where some of our gods have died. We're asking ourselves, 'Who is our true brother and sister, where is our true home?' The modern tempter is our struggle to lead meaningful lives, and even if we don't believe in religion, we can reach down and hold on to our core values for guidance.

Words. Borne on the ever swelling current of hatred, like flowers opening in the current, petals peeling back, then falling apart.

To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.

I was at a loss suddenly; but conscious all the while of how Armand listened; that he listened in the way that we dream of others listening, his face seeming to reflect on every thing said. He did not start forward to seize on my slightest pause, to assert an understanding of something before the thought was finished, or to argue with a swift, irresistible impulse -- the things which often make dialogue impossible. And after a long interval he said, 'I want you. I want you more than anything in the world.

Go where the pain is, go where the pleasure is.

I was good and bad, but never wicked.

You have made me ashamed of the wasted years. You have made me acknowledge that no darkness has ever been deep enough to extinguish my personal knowledge of love. And all around me in this world I see evidence of love. I see love. I see it in the human struggle. I see its undeniable penetration in all that humans have accomplished in their poetry, their painting, their music, their love of one another and refusal to accept suffering as their lot.

When I realized that Reuben was a young man who really wanted to be taken seriously, because he was dismissed for being too good looking or because he had too much money - his character really came to life for me. I began to understand that, and see that a lot of people feel this way - misunderstood because of their talents or gifts or background.

Thank God he killed the guy. Oh, now, wait a minute. What kind of a prayer was that!

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.

It's so easy to persecute an older, overweight, unwise, crude, ignorant woman who may very well be a good person at heart who has achieved a great deal in her life. So easy to vilify her and hate her and try to destroy her life. Woe to anyone today who is not slender, young, clever and politically correct.