His parting shot to me had been, "I don't want to love someone who is more at home with the monsters than I am." What do you say to that? What can you say? Damned if I know. They say love conquers everything. They lie.

I'd made sure I knew his name. You shouldn't ask people to die for you if you don't at least know their name.

By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.

More sex. We must have more sex.

I, Anita Blake, scourge of the undead-the human with more vampire kills than any other vampire executioner in the country-was dating a vampire. It was poetically ironic.

I'm not terribly fond of soapboxes.

He had this old southern idea of what a lady should be. A lady should not carry a gun and spend most of her time covered in blood and corpses. I had two words for that attitude. Yeah, those are the words.