My only real claim to anyone's attention lies in my writing

Thou Shalt Not is soon forgotten, but Once Upon a Time is forever.

The Specters feast as vampires feast on blood, but the Specters’ food is attention. A conscious and informed interest in the world. The immaturity of children is less attractive to them.

You don't read it in the sense of reading a message; it doesn't work like that. What's happening is that the Shadows are responding to the attention you pay them.

That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.

Men and women are moved by tides much fiercer than you can imagine, and they sweep us all up into the current.

Tell him, we are not devils but we have friends who are.