It's funny; in this era of e-mail and voice mail and all those things that even I did not grow up with, a plain old paper letter takes on amazing intimacy.

Every writer hopes his or her book will be its own thing.

For the first time, I had been struck by the excitement of the traveler who looks history in her subtle face.

It was not the brutality of what occurred next that changed my mind and brought home to me the full meaning of fear. It was the brilliance of it.

For me, Dracula has always been associated with travel and beautiful historical places.

If there is any good in life, in history, in my own past, I invoke it now. I invoke it with all the passion with which I have lived.

In those days, I still thoroughly enjoyed the romance I called "by myself"; I didn't know yet how it gets lonely, picks up a sharp edge later on that ruins a day now and then-- ruins more than that, if you're not careful.