Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles Quotes
A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger.
Claudia: Where's mama?
Lestat: Mama... mama has gone to heaven, Chérie, like that sweet lady right there. They all go to heaven.
Louis: All but us.
Lestat: Shh. Do you want to frighten our little daughter?
Claudia: I'm not your daughter.
Lestat: Oh, yes, you are. You're mine and Louis' daughter now. You see, Louis was going to leave us, he was going to go away, but now he's not. Now, he's going to stay and make you happy.
Claudia: Louis.
Louis: You fiend.
Lestat: One happy family.
Lestat: Mama... mama has gone to heaven, Chérie, like that sweet lady right there. They all go to heaven.
Louis: All but us.
Lestat: Shh. Do you want to frighten our little daughter?
Claudia: I'm not your daughter.
Lestat: Oh, yes, you are. You're mine and Louis' daughter now. You see, Louis was going to leave us, he was going to go away, but now he's not. Now, he's going to stay and make you happy.
Claudia: Louis.
Louis: You fiend.
Lestat: One happy family.
Lestat: Listen, Louis. There's life in these old hands still. Not quite Furioso. Moderato? Cantabile, perhaps.
Claudia: How can it be?
Lestat: Ask the alligator. His blood helped. Then on a diet of the blood of snakes, toads, and all the putrid life of the Mississippi, slowly, Lestat became something like himself again. Claudia... You've been a very, very, naughty little girl.
Claudia: How can it be?
Lestat: Ask the alligator. His blood helped. Then on a diet of the blood of snakes, toads, and all the putrid life of the Mississippi, slowly, Lestat became something like himself again. Claudia... You've been a very, very, naughty little girl.
Armand: They had forgotten the first lesson, that we are to be powerful, beautiful, and without regret.
Louis: And you can teach me this?
Armand: Yes.
Louis: To be without regret?
Armand: Yes.
Louis: Then what a pair we could make, but what if it's a lesson I don't care to learn?
Armand: What do you mean?
Louis: What if all I have is my suffering, my regret?
Armand: Don't you want to lose it?
Louis: Why? So you can have that too? The heart that mourns her, her that you burnt to a cinder.
Armand: Louis, I swear that I...
Louis: Ah, but I know you did. I know. You, who regrets nothing, you, who feels nothing. If that's all I have left to learn, I can do that on my own.
Louis: And you can teach me this?
Armand: Yes.
Louis: To be without regret?
Armand: Yes.
Louis: Then what a pair we could make, but what if it's a lesson I don't care to learn?
Armand: What do you mean?
Louis: What if all I have is my suffering, my regret?
Armand: Don't you want to lose it?
Louis: Why? So you can have that too? The heart that mourns her, her that you burnt to a cinder.
Armand: Louis, I swear that I...
Louis: Ah, but I know you did. I know. You, who regrets nothing, you, who feels nothing. If that's all I have left to learn, I can do that on my own.
Louis: 1791 was the year it happened. I was 24, younger than you are now. But times were different then, I was a man at that age: the master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife in childbirth, and she and the infant had been buried less than half a year. I would have been happy to join them. I couldn't bear the pain of their loss. I longed to be released from it. I wanted to lose it all... my wealth, my estate, my sanity. Most of all, I longed for death. I know that now. I invited it. A release from the pain of living. My invitation was open to anyone. To the whore at my side. To the pimp that followed. But it was a vampire that accepted it.
Louis: That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely, and yet I can't recall any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time as if it were the first. And then I said farewell to sunlight, and set out to become what I became.
Claudia: You... fed on me.
Louis: Yes. And he found me with you, and he cut his wrist and fed you from it, and you were a vampire and have been every night thereafter.
Claudia: You both did it.
Louis: [crying] I took your life... He gave you another one.
Claudia: And here it is, and I hate you both.
Louis: Yes. And he found me with you, and he cut his wrist and fed you from it, and you were a vampire and have been every night thereafter.
Claudia: You both did it.
Louis: [crying] I took your life... He gave you another one.
Claudia: And here it is, and I hate you both.
Claudia: Which one of you did it? One of you did it! Which on of you made me the way I am?
Lestat: What you are? A vampire gone insane that pollutes its own bed?
Claudia: And if I cut my hair again?
Lestat: It will grow back again.
Claudia: But it wasn't always so. I had a mother once, and Louis, he had a wife. He was mortal the same as she and so was I.
Louis: Claudia!
Claudia: You made us what we are, didn't you?
Lestat: Stop her, Louis.
Claudia: Did you do it to me?
[slashes Lestat's face, and it heals immediately]
Claudia: How did you do it?
Lestat: Why should I tell you? It's in my power.
Claudia: Why yours alone? Tell me how it was done.
Lestat: Be glad I made you what you are. You'd be dead now if I hadn't, just like that damned corpse. Now, get rid of it!
Claudia: You get rid of it.
Lestat: What you are? A vampire gone insane that pollutes its own bed?
Claudia: And if I cut my hair again?
Lestat: It will grow back again.
Claudia: But it wasn't always so. I had a mother once, and Louis, he had a wife. He was mortal the same as she and so was I.
Louis: Claudia!
Claudia: You made us what we are, didn't you?
Lestat: Stop her, Louis.
Claudia: Did you do it to me?
[slashes Lestat's face, and it heals immediately]
Claudia: How did you do it?
Lestat: Why should I tell you? It's in my power.
Claudia: Why yours alone? Tell me how it was done.
Lestat: Be glad I made you what you are. You'd be dead now if I hadn't, just like that damned corpse. Now, get rid of it!
Claudia: You get rid of it.
Lestat: The trick is not to think about it. See that one there? Widow St. Clair. She had the gorgeous young fop murder her husband.
Louis: How do you know?
Lestat: Read her thoughts.
[Louis looks at him inquisitively]
Lestat: *Read* her thoughts.
Louis: [attempts to read her thoughts] I can't.
Lestat: The dark gift is different for each of us. But one thing is true for us all, we grow stronger as we go along. Just take my word for it. She blamed a slave for his murder. Imagine what they did to him. Evildoers are easier, and they taste better.
Louis: How do you know?
Lestat: Read her thoughts.
[Louis looks at him inquisitively]
Lestat: *Read* her thoughts.
Louis: [attempts to read her thoughts] I can't.
Lestat: The dark gift is different for each of us. But one thing is true for us all, we grow stronger as we go along. Just take my word for it. She blamed a slave for his murder. Imagine what they did to him. Evildoers are easier, and they taste better.
Daniel Molloy: So, what do you do?
Louis: I'm a vampire.
Daniel Molloy: Hmm. That's something I've never heard before. You mean this literally, I take it?
Louis: Absolutely. I was waiting for you in that alleyway: watching you watching me. And then you began to speak.
Daniel Molloy: What a lucky break for me.
Louis: Perhaps lucky for the both of us.
Daniel Molloy: You said you were waiting for me. What were you going to do? Kill me, drink my blood, all that stuff?
Louis: Yes, but you needn't be concerned with that now.
Daniel Molloy: You really believe this, don't you, that you're a vampire?
Louis: We can't begin this way. Let me turn on the light.
Daniel Molloy: I thought vampires didn't like the light.
Louis: We love it. I only wanted to prepare you.
Louis: I'm a vampire.
Daniel Molloy: Hmm. That's something I've never heard before. You mean this literally, I take it?
Louis: Absolutely. I was waiting for you in that alleyway: watching you watching me. And then you began to speak.
Daniel Molloy: What a lucky break for me.
Louis: Perhaps lucky for the both of us.
Daniel Molloy: You said you were waiting for me. What were you going to do? Kill me, drink my blood, all that stuff?
Louis: Yes, but you needn't be concerned with that now.
Daniel Molloy: You really believe this, don't you, that you're a vampire?
Louis: We can't begin this way. Let me turn on the light.
Daniel Molloy: I thought vampires didn't like the light.
Louis: We love it. I only wanted to prepare you.
Claudia: Madeleine, Louis is shy.
Madeleine: Drink.
Claudia: Do it, Louis, because I cannot, I haven't the strength. You saw to that when you made me.
Louis: You haven't the vaguest conception under God what you ask.
Madeleine: Au contraire, Monsieur, I have.
Claudia: You have found your new companion, Louis. You will make me mine.
Madeleine: Drink.
Claudia: Do it, Louis, because I cannot, I haven't the strength. You saw to that when you made me.
Louis: You haven't the vaguest conception under God what you ask.
Madeleine: Au contraire, Monsieur, I have.
Claudia: You have found your new companion, Louis. You will make me mine.
Daniel Molloy: What about crucifixes?
Louis: Crucifixes?
Daniel Molloy: Yes, can you look at them?
Louis: Actually I am quite fond of looking at crucifixes.
Daniel Molloy: What about the old stake through the heart?
Louis: Nonsense
Daniel Molloy: Coffins? What about coffins?
Louis: Coffins. Coffins, I'm afraid, are a necessity.
Louis: Crucifixes?
Daniel Molloy: Yes, can you look at them?
Louis: Actually I am quite fond of looking at crucifixes.
Daniel Molloy: What about the old stake through the heart?
Louis: Nonsense
Daniel Molloy: Coffins? What about coffins?
Louis: Coffins. Coffins, I'm afraid, are a necessity.
Louis: Then out of curiosity, boredom, who knows what, I left the old world and came back to my America. And there, a mechanical wonder allowed me to see the sun rise for the first time in two hundred years. And what sunrises, seen as the human eye could never see them: silver at first, then, as the years progressed, in tones of purple, red, and my long lost blue.
Lestat: There's nothing in the world now that doesn't hold some sort of...
Louis: Fascination.
Lestat: Yes. I'm bored of this prattle.
Louis: But if we can live without taking human life? It's possible.
Lestat: Anything's possible. Just try it for a week. Come to New Orleans. Let me show you some real sport.
Louis: Fascination.
Lestat: Yes. I'm bored of this prattle.
Louis: But if we can live without taking human life? It's possible.
Lestat: Anything's possible. Just try it for a week. Come to New Orleans. Let me show you some real sport.
Louis: Though the fire seemed to spread through the quarter, I stood on that deck, fearful he would come out again from the very river, like some monster, to destroy us both. And all the while, I thought, 'Lestat, you deserve your vengeance. You gave me the dark gift, and I delivered you into the hands of death for the second time.'
Louis: Where are we?
Lestat: Where do you think, my idiot friend? We're in a nice, filthy cemetery. Does this make you happy? Is this fitting, proper enough?
Louis: We belong in hell.
Lestat: And what if there is no hell, or they don't want us there? Ever think of that?
Louis: But there was a hell, and no matter where we moved to, I was in it.
Lestat: Where do you think, my idiot friend? We're in a nice, filthy cemetery. Does this make you happy? Is this fitting, proper enough?
Louis: We belong in hell.
Lestat: And what if there is no hell, or they don't want us there? Ever think of that?
Louis: But there was a hell, and no matter where we moved to, I was in it.
Yvette: Ummm... Monsieur Louis. You don't want any supper ,no?
Louis: No, ma chère.
Yvette: We're worried about you, master. Why is it that you don't go riding in the field? And how long since you've been to the slave quarter? Everywhere there is death. Are you still our master at all?
Louis: That will be all, Yvette!
Yvette: I will not go unless you listen to me! You must, you must send away this friend of yours. The slaves, they are all frightened of him... and they are frightened of you.
[touches Louis's hand]
Louis: I'm frightened of myself.
[indulges in close contact with Yvette. Then begins to bite her wrist. She starts to scream out. For a moment he is too caught up in biting her. She cries out louder and he snaps into reality. He puts his hand over her mouth, wrestles her to the floor and kills her]
Louis: [Louis walks outside carrying Yvette's lifeless body. He speaks to the slaves who have come to see what all the screaming was about] Hear me now! This place is cursed, damned, and yes, your master is the devil! Get out while you can! You are all free men! You hear me?
[Louis gives Yvette to a nearby slave and takes hold of a torch]
Louis: Run, flee, save yourselves!
[waves torch wildly at slaves to make them leave and then goes inside to set the house on fire]
Louis: No, ma chère.
Yvette: We're worried about you, master. Why is it that you don't go riding in the field? And how long since you've been to the slave quarter? Everywhere there is death. Are you still our master at all?
Louis: That will be all, Yvette!
Yvette: I will not go unless you listen to me! You must, you must send away this friend of yours. The slaves, they are all frightened of him... and they are frightened of you.
[touches Louis's hand]
Louis: I'm frightened of myself.
[indulges in close contact with Yvette. Then begins to bite her wrist. She starts to scream out. For a moment he is too caught up in biting her. She cries out louder and he snaps into reality. He puts his hand over her mouth, wrestles her to the floor and kills her]
Louis: [Louis walks outside carrying Yvette's lifeless body. He speaks to the slaves who have come to see what all the screaming was about] Hear me now! This place is cursed, damned, and yes, your master is the devil! Get out while you can! You are all free men! You hear me?
[Louis gives Yvette to a nearby slave and takes hold of a torch]
Louis: Run, flee, save yourselves!
[waves torch wildly at slaves to make them leave and then goes inside to set the house on fire]
