Hollywood:

"My efforts with Hollywood are like things written in water," (Maclean's, Nov. 16, 1992)

Her mainstream appeal:

"I've always thought my work was too extreme and eccentric to go mainstream." (USA Today, Nov. 16, 1994)

Vampires:

"I've always been fascinated by the vampire, the elegant yet evil Byronic figure. It's easy to say it's a metaphor for the outsider, the predator, anyone who feels freakish or monstrous or out of step but normal." (Omni, Oct. 1989)

Her critics:

"It puzzles me that there is such a gap between the critic's perception of my books and my readers' response to them. If someone from another planet were researching what humans read and only looked at the reviews, he couldn't possibly figure out why anybody reads my novels. He'd get a better idea if he just asked the readers." (Omni, Oct. 1989)

Her psychological imperative to write:

"Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is." (People, Dec. 5 1988)

New Orleans:

"I love New Orleans. The twilight sky here is like no place on earth. It is violet and golden. New Orleans has all this lush beauty, like Venice and Rome. I was born here, and I had been wanting to come back for years. I always remember the fantastic contrast of New Orleans in my childhood: the romance and gloom. Here were all these great big beautiful houses falling into gloom. If I begin a book elsewhere, my characters end up right back here." (People, Dec. 5, 1988)

Anonymity:

"I like mainly to be invisible, to sort of drift around unseen in the world." (Rolling Stone, Nov. 20, 1986) her literary voices: "The romance of the Garden District for me had been reality. All the Rice novels were an attempt to reinvoke that reality. The Rampling characters were trying to get out of the trap tat the Rice characters are in, into contemporary life and into the mainstream-- just as I was trying to get out of the historical and supernatural mode and write about contemporary life. Roquelaure is just upfront porn, an attempt to put down those fantasies. They're not gone, but I didn't want to go to the grave not telling that secret." (Rolling Stone, Nov. 20, 1986)

Realizing her dream:

"I didn't have a career or a job. Stan was a successful poet and a respected college professor, and it was perfectly okay with him if I just wrote. So I had nothing to sustain me but my dreams. And I have to admit I dreamed of great success and recognition. I had thrown in my lot with the most bohemian kind of life, and if I was going to be redeemed it had to be by great success. So I don't know if 'surprised' is the right word. But I had the amazing thing happen: my dreams came true." (Publishers Weekly, Oct. 28, 1988)

Queen of the Damned:

"For better or worse, is the first book in which the vision is all there. Early on I had a vision that involved the Twins and the dreams the immortals were having all over the world. My first reaction was, 'You'll never get all that on paper. You'll get maybe half of it.' But this time I decided I was going to write the dream book in its totality. And I did. For me that was a tremendous leap forward, at least in terms of intention and accomplishment." (Publishers Weekly, Oct. 28, 1988)

Memnoch the Devil:

"I wrote it before the movie [IWTV] ever broke because I was terrified that the movie would block me and destroy my sanity and ruin my life, but it hasn't done that.." (Recorded phone message on Anne Rice's "hotline", Dec. 1994)

Servant of the Bones:

"My heart right now is totally connected to a book called The Servant of the Bones, which is not in any way connected with vampires or witches. It's about a new hero, a ghost, who really doesn't particularly like the job that he's been given. I'm in love with this hero and in love with his dilemma." (Recorded message on Anne Rice's "hotline", Dec. 1994)