I wasn’t even thinking about Lestat when I wrote interview with the vampire I was thinking about Louis. Louis was the hero, everything revolved around Louis. Lestat just sprang to life in the corner of my eye. This character took on all this ferocity. I never sat down and thought “Well, this is based on my husband, Stan,” or “This is what Stan would do.” I had an idea of Lestat as the man of action, the man who could do things that I couldn’t do, that man who could make the decision that I never had the nerve to make; and the person who could go through life joyfully in spite of the questions that torment me — the doubts that torment me, the horror of death that torments me. Of course, that was tied up with the idea that he was an 18th century personality; he was from the age of reason, he was much more rational, much more cynical in some ways than Louis. Louis was more a naïve romantic character, much more I think 19th century. All of that was working in my mind. Not that the Romantic period is limited to the 19th century, certainly not; it starts in the 18th. But still, Lestat represented the Enlightenment. He represented a different view on things. He’s also inherently a comic character, in the sense of always triumphing and always coming back and never being really destroyed. He never really absorbs a tragic definition of himself for very long. He always comes back laughing at everything and just rebounding. It may take him a few years, but he always does it. I really wanted to explore a personality different from my own. He became a kind of dream version of what I’d like to be; he was the man I wanted to be; he was the person I wanted to be. I wanted his strength. And once he became a living character I never had to consciously steer him in any direction. It was just a matter of getting into Lestat and then he’d go, and he’d take me where he wanted in the novel. I never had to worry about his dialogue. My knowledge of him was so complete, and so instinctive, that I could just write. The other characters I might have to think about — where they were coming from, what they had to say. But not him. I know exactly what he thinks about everything. If I walk into a theater and see a play, I know whether he likes it or not. If I watch an opera, I know whether he loves that opera. If I go visit a city, I know what he thinks of that city. I’ll never be away from him; he’ll always be apart of me.