Anne Rice the Novelist, biography, facts and quotes

"To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner"

"I'm usually working on my own mythology, my own realm of created characters. Stories in mythology inspire me, though I may not be conscious of it"

"I love New Orleans physically. I love the trees and the balmy air and the beautiful days. I have a beautiful house here"

"I claim Dickens as a mentor. He's my teacher. He's one of my driving forces"

"Evil is always possible. Goodness is a difficulty"

"I gave up on the big screen. The Witching Hour was at Warner Bros. for 10 years and it just didn't work out"

"I broke with my religion in college"

"What I did was take the Jesus of the Gospels, the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin Mary, and sought to make Him utterly believable, a vital breathing character"

"We need to stop fighting Christian against Christian. I have no time for anything but trying to love other people. That is a full-time job"

"The whole theme of Interview with the Vampire was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing immortal simply to ask, What is the meaning of what we are?"

"I wish we had more visible Christian and Catholic leaders who talked about love"

"I was obsessed with religious questions, the basics: Why are we here? Why is the world so beautiful?"

"I can't get very far away from Christianity, I can't get very far away from the angels and the saints. I work them in always, in some way"

"We have to become saints. We have to become like Christ. Anything less is simply not enough"

"To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself"

"Obviously, a writer can't know everything about what she writes. It's impossible"

"It is tragic that many in America think of us - Christians - as being people who hate others"

"I thought The Shining was just absolutely wonderful. Stephen King reaches all kinds of people. In the beginning he was just dismissed out of hand, which was terrible"

"I feel like an outsider, and I always will feel like one. I've always felt that I wasn't a member of any particular group"

"First-person narrators is the way I know how to write a book with the greatest power and chance of artistic success"

"Dickens is a very underrated writer at the moment. Everyone in his time admired him but I think right now he's not spoken of enough"

"When I write something, every word of it is meant. I can't say it enough"

"The only pain in pleasure is the pleasure of the pain"

"I want to love all the children of God - Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist - everyone. I want to love gay Christians and straight Christians"

"I do not read the ancient languages, but I am beginning to study Greek"

"We're frightened of what makes us different"

"Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ASK. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds"

"The world doesn't need any more mediocrity or hedged bets"

"The vampires have always been metaphors for me. They've always been vehicles through which I can express things I have felt very, very deeply"

"I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them"

"I enjoy the Web site a lot and I like being able to talk to my readers. I've always had a very close relationship with them"

"I'm going to keep on dealing with the supernatural in a lot of ways"

"I read The Old Curiosity Shop before I began Blackwood Farm. I was amazed at the utter madness in that book"

"There may be writing groups where people meet but it's occasional. You really do it all at your own computer or your own typewriter by yourself"

"People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult"

"Obsession led me to write. It's been that way with every book I've ever written. I become completely consumed by a theme, by characters, by a desire to meet a challenge"

"My own funeral, I'd like to be laid out in a coffin in my own house. I would like my coffin to be put in the double parlor, and I would like all the flowers to be white"