“I’m going to do this and I’m not going to pass it up.” That’s what I’m talking about, that moment of ruthless ambition and decision and choice. I don’t think you can take the vision in Interview with the Vampire any further than I did in that book. At least, I can’t take it any further. There was nothing to do but grow beyond that because it’s a book about disappointment, disillusionment, and bitterness. Every single question that comes up has a disappointing answer. Everything Louis looks for, everywhere he goes, doors close, or darkness is revealed to be at the core, or death results, or things burn down, or they crumble. In The Vampire Lestat I deliberately set out to do the exact opposite. I thought, what if his mother doesn’t die? What if she becomes a really powerful vampire and they jump out the window together? What if he does find Marius, and what if Marius tells him an incredible story? And what if, at the end, he’s just bopping along and becomes a rock star? What if each thing leads to more doors opening and more questions? That’s why that book was comic for me, because it celebrated procreation, and it had a great deal of humor and it was about possibility and renewal. Resurrection and renewal. Interview with the Vampire was a tragic, lyric book about nothing being possible.
