I read The Old Curiosity Shop before I began Blackwood Farm. I was amazed at the utter madness in that book.

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.

And what if I never go of my own free will? Will you pitch me from some window so that I must fly or fall? Will you bolt all shutters after me? You had better, because I'll knock and knock and knock until I fall down dead. I'll have no wings that take me away from you.

I was the vampire Lestat again. I was back in action. New Orleans was once again my hunting ground.

Advice to a new writer: There are no rules in this profession. Do what is good for you. Read books and watch films that stimulate your writing. In your writing, go where the pain is; go where the pleasure is; go where the excitement is. Believe in your own original approach, voice, characters, story. Ignore critics. Have nerve. Be stubborn.

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

I didn’t look to the shore much after this first long and memorable glimpse. I looked up at Heaven and her court of mythical creatures fixed forever in the all powerful and inscrutable stars. Ink black was the night beyond them, and they so like jewels that old poetry came back to me, the sound even of hymns sung only by men.