Ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires.
Everything is a symbol of something, it seems, until proven otherwise.
Whenever people eat or drink together, it's communion.
The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, visions of ourselves that we would never see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuring that we get to return home again.
The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge.
The difference between being Achilles and almost being Achilles is the difference between living and dying.