In the spring of 1988, I returned to New Orleans, and as soon as I smelled the air, I knew I was home. It was rich, almost sweet, like the scent of jasmine and roses around our old courtyard. I walked the streets, savoring that long lost perfume.

Sometimes fear is a warning. It's like someone putting a hand on your shoulder and saying Go No Farther.

Obviously, a writer can't know everything about what she writes. It's impossible.

Let the spirits witness: for theirs is the knowledge of the future - both what it would be, and what I will: You are the Queen of the Damned, that's what you are! Evil is your only destiny. But at your greatest hour, it is I who will defeat you. Look well on my face. It is I who will bring you down.

I left Christianity because I wanted to be a moral person. That is why I left. I no longer believed in its lies.

The truth is most women are weak, be they mortal or immortal. But when they are strong, they are absolutely unpredictable.

My life's been too much of a self-created vocation. And there are times when I think I've done everything in the name of defiance.