Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) Edit

A child who cannot die.

A coffin! Let me out!

A doll?

A fresh young girl...

A little child, she was.

A person to suffer as you suffer?

A release from the pain of living.

A release from the pain of living.

A scent too faint for mortals to detect.

A series of simple gestures.

A vampire gone insane, that pollutes its own bed.

A vampire...

A very...

Absolutely.

Actually, I'm quite fond of looking at crucifixes.

After 400 years...

All but us.

All I need to find you, Louis, is follow the corpses of rats.

All right, now.

An immortal with a mortal's passion.

An infant prodigy, with a lust for killing that matched his own.

And all the putrid life of the Mississippi...

And all the while I thought:

And as much as your invitation might appeal to me...

And as soon as I smelled the air, I knew I was home.

And as we blundered through it, again came the thought:

And chops him from his horse.

And coffins?

And each of those statues resembled her face.

And fades away.

And have always been.

And have been every night thereafter.

And he found me with you.

And here it is.

And how I suffered then...

And how long since you've been to the slave quarter?

And I don't recommend them.

And I gave it to you.

And I hate you both.

And I longed for one second's peace.

And I shall suffer for it no longer!

And I'm going to give you what you need to get well.

And if I cut my hair again?

And it is this:

And it means something else too, doesn't it?

And it wasn't coming from the graves.

And it would be for all time.

And maybe it was...

And my long lost blue.

And no matter where we moved to, I was in it.

And now you weep.

And set out to become what I became.

And sickness and death...

And so euphoric was I that I yielded to her every desire.

And so I'm yours forever.

And so shall we.

And so will all the world.

And spends his days in pious contemplation...

And suppose Death had a heart to love and to release you?

And the child who did die?

And the more you tried,

And the stake through the heart?

And then I said farewell to sunlight...

And then on Prytania Street...

And then put out the light.

And then you began to speak.

And there a mechanical wonder allowed me to see the sunrise...

And they are frightened of you.

And watch you come around.

And what sunrises!

And when you awake...

And without regret.

And yet I can't recall any sunrise before it.

And you can teach me this?

And you knew what I would do.

And you want me to quicken you once more.

And you were a vampire then...

And you will feel as you felt with that child in your arms.

And you will never die.

And, yes, your master is the devil!

And...

Anger! Fury!

Another doll.

Are you calling me a cheat?

Are you happy, Louis?

Are you not hungry, sir?

Are you still our master at all?

Are...

Armand!

Armand!

Armand! Armand!

Armand.

As a doornail, my friend.

As all we love slowly rots...

As deep as yours?

As did the one who made me.

As far as I know...

As ourselves.

As we are now.

Ask the alligator.

At last we are even.

Be glad I made you what you are.

Bear me no ill will, my love.

Beautiful, my friend.

Beautiful...

Because I cannot do it. I haven't the strength.

Blood, I was to find, was a necessity as well.

Bring the petite beauty with you.

Buffoon!

But all my passion went with her golden hair.

But also a fierce killer...

But Death we are...

But does that make you evil?

But I can't hate you, Louis.

But I know you did.

But if she dies?

But it has.

But it was a vampire that accepted.

But it wasn't always so.

But it's best in the beginning, lest the death takes you down with it.

But just try it for a week.

But now he's not.

But once put out thy light...

But one of our kind?

But one thing is true of everyone. We grow stronger as we go along.

But perhaps...

But still, whenever she awoke...

But the price is high.

But the snob in him loved to hunt in society.

But the vampires in the theater?

But there was a hell.

But times were different then. I was a man at that age.

But times were different then. I was a man at that age.

But to Lestat, a pupil...

But you can't kill me, Louis.

But you must tell me...

But you needn't be concerned now.

But you upset my plans.

But, hark.

But...

Can I, Louis? Be like her one day?

Can you look at them?

Can't you pretend, you fool?

Cantabile, perhaps.

Changes.

Claudia and I alone seemed immune.

Claudia is very dear to me.

Claudia, Claudia, Claudia.

Claudia, don't.

Claudia!

Claudia! Armand!

Claudia.

Claudia.

Claudia. Claudia!

Claudia. Claudia!

Claudia. I cannot help her.

Claudia...

Coffins, unfortunately, are a necessity.

Coffins.

Come and see.

Come into New Orleans and let me show you some real sport.

Come on!

Come to guide us into the new era...

Come to New Orleans, then.

Come.

Company...

Consider yourself lucky.

Consider yourself lucky.

Could never touch you again.

Country after country.

Crosses...

Curling her little fingers around my hair...

Curling her little fingers around my hair...

Damned.

Danger holds you to me.

Dead blood?

Death for the others.

Death is no respecter of age. It can come any time, any place.

Decadent...

Deeper, ma chérie.

Detached.

Did you kill this vampire who made you both?

Disgorging an endless menu of magnificent strangers.

Do it, Louis.

Do this before you leave me!

Do you find us beautiful?

Do you hear me?

Do you know them?

Do you know what his soul said to me without saying a word?

Do you know what it means to be loved by Death?

Do you know what manner of bed?

Do you know...

Do you like being food for the immortals?

Do you like dying?

Do you like this?

Do you still want death?

Do you want me to be a doll forever?

Do you want to frighten our daughter?

Doctor, what about me?

Does it?

Does this make you happy? Is this fitting? Proper enough?

Doesn't suit my palate, Louis.

Doesn't that make you good?

Don't be afraid.

Don't be angry with me.

Don't be frightened.

Don't give the game away.

Don't go that way, monsieur. It's the plague.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

Don't you see?

Don't you want to lose it?

Drink...

Drunk...

Each one must bend his forehead to my kiss.

Each one of you my clammy hands must touch.

Empty?

Empty.

End her suffering. End yours!

Enough.

Eternity in a box.

Even though you're the father of lies...

Everywhere there is death.

Evil doers are easier, and they taste better.

Evil is a point of view.

Fascination.

Feed...

Fictions, my friend.

Finds he will meet his maker all too soon.

FM radio, KFRC.

For a young girl like you.

For all his prayers gets no remuneration.

For no creatures under God are as we are. None so like him...

For seconds, he preferred a gilded, beautiful youth.

For what could the damned really have to say to the damned?

For years I wandered:

For you, Louis.

For you...

Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life.

From the New World...

From the river like some monster, to destroy us both.

Gave me your immortal kiss.

Get him!

Get me Armand. He wouldn't stand for this.

Get out while you can. You're all free.

Give it vital breath again.

Give me some room.

Give me your money or you die.

Good night, sweet prince.

Good stuff.

Good.

Have the stamina for immortality?

Have you heard enough?

Have you said your goodbyes to the light?

He belongs with those reptiles.

He could eat the whole colony.

He deserved to die.

He gave me this life...

He gave you another one.

He knew me.

He lavished affection on her, there is no doubt about that.

He left me there, on the banks of the Mississippi...

He wants you as a companion. He bides his time in that place.

He wants you as you want him. He's been waiting for you.

He was all I knew. It's as simple as that.

He was going to go away.

He was mortal, same as she.

He was my maker.

He will never let us go.

He's the one, that's the vampire.

Hear me now.

Help!

Her blood coursed through my veins sweeter than life itself.

Her eyes alone told the story of her age, staring from under her curls...

Her silence.

Her youth.

Here all one needs is a pair of fangs.

His blood helped.

How avant garde.

How can I put you at ease?

How could it be?

How did you do it?

How did you wrong him?

How do we seem to you?

How many aces are in that deck?

How quickly they perish of their own will.

How the hell did you do that?

How you love your precious guilt.

Hush, now, don't cry.

I adore you!

I always have been.

I am afraid, madame, my days are sacrosanct.

I am the oldest living vampire...

I assume I need no introduction.

I began to believe we were the only ones.

I can do that on my own.

I can see you lying on a bed of satin.

I can tell by your color.

I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can.

I can't bear it.

I can't die like this.

I can't.

I cannot...

I caught the scent of death.

I could give you reasons.

I could venture out again.

I couldn't bear the pain of their loss.

I did it for us.

I didn't realize.

I don't assume it would. It's not like you'll die from cancer.

I don't know any hell.

I don't want to die!

I feed on those who cross my path.

I feel better already.

I felt a kind of peace at last.

I go on night after night.

I had a mother once. And Louis, he had a wife.

I had found the teacher which Lestat could never, I knew now, have been.

I had lost my wife in childbirth.

I had lost my wife in childbirth.

I had never felt.

I have a gift for you.

I have been listening. Your story is incredible. It's amazing.

I have dozens, you realize.

I have hated him for the wrong reasons."

I have never seen a vision, nor learned a secret...

I have.

I haven't been human for 200 years.

I invited it.

I invited it.

I knew him.

I knew knowledge would never be withheld by Armand.

I knew peace only when I killed.

I knew what peace could be.

I knew.

I know nothing of God.

I know that now.

I know.

I know...

I learned absolutely nothing.

I left the Old World and came back to my America.

I like to do it. I enjoy it.

I longed to be released from it.

I love you still.

I must leave now.

I must regretfully decline.

I need a priest.

I need you to make contact with this age.

I only wanted to prepare you.

I promise I'll get rid of the bodies.

I promise I'll get rid of the bodies.

I remember it completely...

I remember it.

I rescued you, didn't I?

I saw you in the theater.

I stood on that deck fearful he would come out again...

I suppose we could people the world with vampires...

I thought I'd killed her.

I thought of all the things I had done and couldn't undo.

I thought you could use one more.

I took your life.

I tried.

I understand.

I walked all night.

I walked as I walked years before...

I want some more.

I want things to be as they were.

I want this opportunity.

I want to be her.

I wanted those waters to be blue, but they were black, nighttime waters.

I wanted to be her!

I was 24.

I was a newborn vampire, weeping at the beauty of the night.

I was mortal till you...

I was waiting for you in that alleyway.

I wasn't given a choice, remember?

I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time...

I will die.

I will finish it.

I will not take her life.

I will only risk losing you!

I would be the one.

I would. It's not bothering you, is it?

I would've been happy to join them.

I...

I'll put you in your coffin!

I'm a collector of lives.

I'm a spirit of preternatural flesh.

I'm a vampire.

I'm at odds with everything.

I'm flesh and blood, but not human.

I'm frightened of myself.

I'm going to give you the choice...

I'm going to give you the choice...

I'm not dead!

I'm not the spirit of any age.

I'm old enough to be your grandmother.

I'm so glad you are here.

I'm weary of you both.

I've brought a present for you.

I've come to answer your prayers.

I've done it for you.

I've drained you to the point of death.

I've dreamed...

I've had to listen to that for centuries.

I've searched the world for an immortal and this is what I find.

If I leave you here, you'll die.

If not vampires.

If that's all I have left to learn...

If there were a leader...

If you want to save her, send her away.

Imagine what they did to him.

In 200 years.

In Paris, a vampire must be clever...

In the spring of 1988, I returned to New Orleans.

In the world.

Irritates me.

Is his...

Is that supposed to frighten me?

Is that what I should do?

Is the only real evil left.

Is this my birthday?

It can't harm you.

It gets cold so quickly.

It happened to you too...

It happens to us all.

It killed them, unfortunately.

It needs must wither.

It was rich, almost sweet...

It will grow back again.

It would pass through him as through a pane of glass.

It's a coffin!

It's driving me mad. That noise!

It's false light.

It's forbidden to make one so young...

It's good stuff.

It's in my power.

It's only mortal death.

It's so easy, you almost feel sorry for them.

It's the carriage.

It's your coffin, enjoy it. Most of us never get to know what it feels like.

Italy, Greece...

Its broken heart.

Just as this flesh is pink now...

Just burn the place! Burn everything we own!

Just remember: Life without me...

Just the two of us.

Kill them swiftly if you will, but do it!

Kiss...

Knew him well enough not to mourn his passing.

Knew?

Laudanum?

Laudanum?

Laudanum.

Lestat became something like himself again.

Lestat must have wept when he made you.

Lestat.

Let me kiss it better.

Let me live! I don't care!

Let me show you.

Let me turn on the light.

Let you go?

Let's set them free.

Life has no meaning anymore, does it?

Like everyone else?

Like I said, that's what I do. I interview people.

Like that damned corpse.

Like that sweet lady, right there.

Like the fragrance of jasmine and roses around our old courtyard.

Listen to me.

Listen to me.

Listen, Louis...

Look who we forgot.

Louis is shy.

Louis, don't!

Louis, lift me up.

Louis, my love.

Louis, what's happening to her?

Louis, why?

Louis!

Louis! Put me in my coffin.

Louis.

Love holds you to me.

Madeleine...

Magical?

Mama!

Mama.

Mama.

Mama's gone to heaven, chérie...

May flights of devils wing you to your rest.

Maybe too expensive...

Maybe twice, in eternity.

Me?

Merciful death.

Methinks a mortal doth approach.

Might as well ask heaven what it sees.

Mind the thumb, girl. Mind the thumb.

Moderato...

Mon dieu. More melancholy nonsense.

Monsieur Louis?

Monsieur! I need more light.

Monstrous.

Monstrous.

More congenial than mine.

Most of all, I longed for death.

Most of all, I longed for death.

My butterflies, he killed them!

My dark angel, when you are gone?

My daughter.

My estate...

My father...

My friend is a priest. He'll hear your sins before you die.

My God!

My God.

My invitation was open to anyone.

My Louis, who made me?

My philosopher. My martyr.

My regret?

My sanity.

My wealth...

Naughty little girl.

Never had.

Never.

No human can know.

No human can know.

No one could refuse me...

No one will harm you. I won't allow it.

No pain.

No pain.

No problem. I got a bag full of tape.

No, I'm calling you a piece of stinking offal.

No, it can't end like that.

No, ma chérie.

No!

No!

No! Louis!

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No. I don't think so.

No. It's just a room.

No. You are dead.

Nonsense.

Not a drop spilt. Very good.

Not a whisper.

Not even you.

Not here.

Not quite furioso.

Not you, my little Claudia.

Nothing.

Nothing...

Now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding.

Now get rid of it!

Now he's going to stay and make you happy.

Now it's time to leave him.

Now leave us.

Now try something on a more somber note.

Now, look...

Now, that is pure Creole.

Now, you brought me here for a reason, didn't you? Didn't you?

Now, young man, you really amaze me.

Now...

Nowhere.

Obsessed with the search for what she called "our kind."

Of all this...

Of course you want more.

Of this moment.

Oh, doctor! Fascinating.

Oh, God.

Oh, Lestat, I must do more than that.

Oh, Louis, Louis.

Oh, no! No!

Oh, yes, that's the melody.

Oh, yes. Monsieur Vampire, take me!

Oh, yes. This calls for a celebration.

On brandywine. A thimbleful.

On what you will.

Once you taste this...

Once...

One happy family.

One lesson you taught me...

One you could never imagine.

Only I moved too fast for you to see.

Only you were too young to remember.

Or have you tasted it enough?

Or I do.

Or let me fit this child during the day.

Or shall we begin when I was born to darkness, as I call it.

Or the devil.

Or they don't want us there? Ever think of that?

Or...

Our white skin, our fierce eyes?

Outdone yourself.

Over the weeks, while waiting for the boat...

Pain is terrible for you.

Papa left us and didn't come back.

Paris, September, 1870.

Past.

Pay no attention.

Perfect! Perfect!

Perhaps it will take centuries.

Perhaps lucky for both of us.

Perhaps my lesson has not ended yet.

Perhaps you'd like another cigarette?

Perhaps, in the end, he did it because he was lonely too.

Perhaps.

Pleasant dreams.

Please help us.

Please.

Please...

Pluck out the pain and give you another life?

Pondering the mystery of each other.

Put me in my coffin.

Rats, chickens, poodles.

Rats? When did you eat rats, Louis?

Read her thoughts.

Really?

Remember how you wanted her?

Remember my name:

Remember what I told you.

Remember, never in our home.

Ruin after ruin...

Run! Run!

Sailboats gave way to steamships...

Save me from him.

Save me!

Save yourselves!

She and the infant had been buried less than half a year.

She blamed a slave for his murder.

She had that gorgeous young fop murder her husband.

She never should have been one of...

She pollutes the very house we live in!

She slept in my coffin at first...

She studied the myths and legends of the Old World...

She would crawl into mine.

She would crawl into mine.

She's dead...

She's dying.

She's in danger, isn't she?

She's mad!

She's my daughter.

Should have told you this.

Should taste those lips.

Should we burn him?

Should we put out the light?

Shut up, Louis!

Silent as the grave.

Silver at first...

Since you comprehend what you call goodness...

Slowly...

Snatching me from my mother's hands, like two monsters in a fairy tale.

So a vampire can cry?

So helpless...

So it is. You must be dead.

So it was...

So it will turn gray and wrinkle with age.

So soft.

So soon?

So you can have that too?

So you want me to tell you the story of my life.

So, what do you do?

Some of these, Claudia, are so old...

Somebody change my shorts.

Someone help me!

Somewhere between life and death.

Soon...

Still beautiful, Louis.

Still whining, Louis.

Stop him! It's burning!

Stop pestering me, then.

Stop!

Stop.

Stop.

Straining to recall the color that in my youth I took for granted.

Such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste.

Such lights...

Superstitions about garlic...

Surely you know the one who made you?

Take me. That's what I want. I want what you have.

Take them!

Take your aesthete's taste to purer things.

Tattered.

Tell me about him. You must've learned something from him.

Tell me how it came to be that I am this...

Tell me how it was done.

That a vampire found me.

That cannot survive on its own.

That is the very spirit of your age.

That little digit.

That morning, I was not yet a vampire...

That noise...

That was human.

That we must be powerful...

That will be all, Yvette.

That will never happen to you.

That would damn or save my soul.

That's all past, Lestat.

That's it?

That's it.

That's more like it.

That's really where we should start, don't you think?

That's something I haven't heard before.

That's the torment of it.

That's why I chose you.

The blood of the aristocrat thrilled him best of all.

The city I'd always dreamed of.

The dark gift is different for each of us.

The food sickens you.

The heart of it.

The heart that mourns her...

The lesson endeth here...

The master of a large plantation, just south of New Orleans.

The monk whose soul with heaven doth commune...

The more I wanted you.

The one who made us knew nothing, nor did he care.

The Paris Opera's in town.

The place was empty as we left.

The same as you do.

The scent grew stronger as I walked.

The slaves are all frightened of him...

The soldier, on returning from the war...

The source...

The statue seemed to move, but didn't.

The swamp?

The taste of her?

The three of us.

The vampire that I was?

The vulgar fictions of a demented lrishman.

The wine has no taste.

The world had changed, yet stayed the same.

The world...

The years flew by like minutes. The city grew.

Their Democratic flavor...

Then blame the one who made her.

Then God does not exist?

Then he cut his wrist and fed you from him...

Then I hope it's a beautiful woman...

Then I leave too.

Then it's as I always feared.

Then perhaps so do we, every night of our lives.

Then there is nothing?

Then why should you care if you die now?

Then, as the years progressed, in tones of purple, red...

Then, out of curiosity, boredom, who knows what...

Then, what a pair we could make.

There are no vampires in Transylvania? No Count Dracula?

There has to be more to tell.

There seems no reason for any of it, does there?