"My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people."

"Now that I'm being very successful, publishers are trying to mainstream me, but I'm unabashedly genre. It's what I like to read, what I like to write."

"I think that my vampires in general were influenced by my being allowed to watch the Hammer vampire films. Vampire Circus, also shown as Circus of Fear, was one of those movies."

"I'm more influenced by my own interests than anyone else's. Writers have to entertain themselves, or they can't entertain anyone else."

"Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book."

"I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will."

"When sex is necessary for the plot of a book, or a character development, then I don't shy away from it. Why should I?"

"I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write."

"What we prefer to read is sort of like sexual preference, you like what you like. Most of the time you have no clue why."

"I want a kiss to be so believable it give the reader shivers."

"I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn't write or read horror or fantasy, other than children's fantasy, until I was in my teens."

"Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction. It is fiction; it ain't true, folks."

"I try not to worry about rewriting books that worked well the first time. I'm too busy writing new books to worry about things that are already in print."

"Readers respond to every genre intensely, if it's a genre that appeals to them. Again, who can say why anyone enjoys horror and dark fantasy? If I can't answer the question for myself, I wouldn't dream of trying to answer it for others."

"Most of the monsters... are based on some sort of mythology. Every culture and even some geographical areas have monsters and mythology that is their own."

"I wasn't like most girls."

"If I'd been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit wonder."

"I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others."

"Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development."

"One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane."

"You either mellow at 30, or your head explodes - take your choice."

"Here's the secret to finishing that first book. Don't rewrite as you go."

"My writing style is very sensual, as in sensory detail."

"I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't."

"I love animals, always have, and it seemed natural to help the ASPCA. Animals have no voice of their own, so we have to be that voice."

"I like conventions. I like meeting and greeting. I'm perched on that edge where I'm getting more attention than I quite know what to do with, though."

"I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print."

"The fey in this country keep to themselves, and are a separate nation, much like the American Indians, but with even more autonomy."

"Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil."

"If people would write exactly what I wanted to read I wouldn't feel so compelled to write myself."