I saw his stupid face up there and had to think of something quick.
LouisYou couldn't make up a name?
Best lies got some truth to 'em. And that's the only other vampire I knew. It's gonna be fine.
Louis
Fine?
Louis
What about Lestat? He's 100-something-year-old painting in a frame. They got a fսcking shrine! What if they find out we killed him? One of us would have to tell them. Or think it!
Well, I thought it the second I saw his face in the frame, but there they were inviting us back, five minutes later. To kill us. And right after that I invaded their thoughts, and not one, not one of them, thought anything other than I want to lick these two, so we need to stay away from Estelle if we can.
Louis
If Claudia and I were looking over our shoulder at all, it was in astonishment our skin did not attract the same attention it did in America.
Right, because there wasn't any racism in mid-20th century France.
Louis
Oh, I didn't say that.
I think [[w:Algerian people|your Algerian [savory] inferiors of the time might disagree.
Louis
But I wasn't an Algerian. I was an American, and if there was an assumption that I'd arrived to blow a trumpet or sing for my supper, it did not register as a slight in those days. I was just grateful knowing no one wanted to lynch me or direct me to the far end of the café counter.
I'm evil, evil as any vampire who ever lived. I've killed over and over and I will do it again. Why does that make you as evil as any vampire? Aren't there gradations to evil? Is evil a great perilous gulf one falls into with the first sin?
Louis de Pointe du Lac
I mean, kinda. It's not as logical as you're saying, but it's dark and it's empty, and I can't see the bottom of it.
But if evil is without gradation and it does exist, this state of evil then, only one sin is needed. That's your argument.
JPJean-Paul Sartre
[Politely coughs] Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract what is concrete.
JPJean-Paul Sartre
Armand.
This is my friend, Louis.
JPJean-Paul Sartre
Bonjour. Now, will you two kindly shut up, so I can hear the music, hmm?
Your argument assumes God exists.
Louis de Pointe du Lac
I don't know that God exists. From what I saw in the war, he doesn't.
Then surely, there are degrees and variations to goodness? The goodness of the child which is innocence. The goodness of the nun who lives a life of self-deprivation and service. The goodness of the saints, the goodness of the midwives. And how is this evil achieved? How does one fall from grace?
Louis
[To Claudia at dinner party] So this couple, the Perriers, they got this salon thing they call R-26. Artist types, some showing work, some just there to be there. Painters, poets...
Louis
Yeah, me, okay, I showed a little work, got some love back.
I don't know what he sees in him. He's not that attractive. ]
W1Woman 1
And a waterfall of pretension bursting forth from his mouthal cavity. Read my mind, grab my nethers. Already doing it.
M1Man 1
Sam was late with the bed bellows. Head's in a hat. Working on a new play. It won't happen again, Maitre.
M2Man 2
It happened four times!
M1Man 1
It won't happen again, Maitre. Eglee?
Catatonic since Santiago has taken up with Celeste again.
M2Man 2
And Gustave? Les Toilettes? Back at the lair, hung over from last night, when he split from the pack and over-served himself in the Latin Quarter.
W2Woman 2
Ran down the street screaming, "I am a vampire! I am a vampire!"
M2Man 2
Wheels are coming off this week, Maitre. It's not just Paris giving birth to more genius.
Louis
She's giving birth...
Louis
[To Claudia] Yes! Sculptors and authors, and photographers and saxophone players. Intermingling, innovating.
LSLouis & Santiago
[In unison] Collapsing two art forms into one. Coming up with new ones. Meanwhile, everyone's fawning over Picasso, but out there on the Left Bank in shabby hotel rooms and cold water walk-ups, a new generation's ripping apart the old modes. Bursting into new ones.
Louis
Suppose I can come off haughty.
LSLouis & Santiago
[In unison] Everyone's fawning over Picasso, but not me, not Louis du Lac. I'm out in the streets on the barricades with the avant-garde.
Louis
Funny.
See, now that I've wriggled inside your voice, pulled it on like a costume, you don't sound all that Chicago to me.
Outside Chicago. We roamed all around.
It's that emphasis on the second syllable, borrowed from the French.
Louis
So it's mimicry that you're good at. Like a parrot?
Like a gent with upright downstairs.
Louis
Or an organ monkey?
Cajun drawl. I want to test a theory. Say New Orleans!
Louis
Or a buffoon! [Santiago hisses with Louis then leaping from seat, popping up besides Santiago pulling his tongue] Anything else you want to say, buffoon?! I couldn't hear you from the other side of the table! But you got my attention now!
Enough! [All guests heads slam on table and whole restaurant goes still]
Louis
Take your time. Come on! What?! Spit it out! A-huh.
Louis
Good boy.
If you two want to act like fledglings do it in darkness! [Telepathically] Louis, come back!
AAlois
So, you've been showing your work at the Perriers' salon?
Louis
Always something interesting happening there.
Alois': Maybe before the war more than now. But then I'm rarely out of my gallery.
Louis
You got a nice one. You might remember, I bought a Fougeron from you early in the year. I was a little short of asking so I threw in that watch I was wearing.
Alois': Ah, yes, yes, a good watch. Where did you hang the Fougeron?
Louis
Over my bed all spring. Then I sold it to Germain Seligmann in summer. I saw he was expanding beyond decorative arts, getting into paintings. I got a good price.
Alois': So are you a dealer or are you an artist, Mr. Du Lac?
Louis
I like to think I'm maybe both.
Alois': Mm. You are using a Rolleiflex and always at night? Very hard. Sometimes a Leica. Like this one?
Louis
That's in there by mistake. I didn't mean to bring that one.
Alois': Mm, you aim the camera straight but here, something fragile about this man.
Louis
If you knew the man you'd know he was anything but.
Alois': A happy mistake then? You caught the soul he is hiding. So... [lays out a photo on table] tell me... what do you see?
Louis
Frame of the door. The light on the street. The door across the street. The look he's getting from the stoop across the street.
Alois': Is the look a warning? "This is what happens if you play in the street," thinks the mother.
Louis
Or is it, the friend of the boy he used to play with? Can't anymore.
Alois': And what of the look of the boy who cannot play anymore? We are left to wonder.
Louis
Helluva shot. Who took it?
Alois': A young American like yourself. He has the eye.
Louis
Are you're saying I don't have the eye?
Alois': No, no. I think you do have the eye. Like I have the eye. We know it when we see it. You see it in yours? Only five prints left. You should buy one from me. Sit on it. Sell it to Seligmann when he moves into photography. You'll get a good price.
Louis
[Slams binder shut] Fսck you! [Storms off, slamming door]
Yeah, early work. I can't read anything I wrote before Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire. But some of these aren't so bad, Louis.
Louis
They document, nothing more.
I mean, this one with the fountain and the couple, and the water's glowing. I think I've seen it somewhere, like in a book or something. Right?
Louis
There's a good reason you picked that one, Daniel. It's not mine. That's Fred Stein. Elsa Triolet. Model, mid-30s I'm still in New Orleans. What is this?
Louis
I know. Why is it in there? Why are all these in there?
Don't ask me. We've been staring at those...
Louis
I didn't put these here.
Probably, Rashid confused them.
FRFlashback Rashid
In high school, you told a girl you'd only do her if she had a paper bag over her head. She agreed and you did...
Louis
This is embarrassing. I don't want you thinking I was trying to pass them off as mine.
Louis
I was an adequate photographer. An amateur. [Shuts briefcase] I want our readers to know that.
Louis
[In apartment with photos strung up] Only been at it a few years.
Louis
Can only take 'em at night when I can't control the light I'm getting. I'm supposed to stand by a street lamp and wait for the world to pass under it? I'm a vampire!
You're a vampire, a hunter!
Louis
I'm out there prowling for the moment. Do you know how many great shots I've taken only to find that the light was insufficient when I put it in the bath?
Louis
A whole goddamn lot! [Hands Lestat a photo who immediately starts eating it] Look at this. And this fսcking Gordon Parks fella he put in front of me? Guy spends three or four days with folks before he even picks up a camera. Friends with 'em and shit. I can't do that. I'll end up eating 'em!
[Starts perusing photos on a table] Like this gentleman. And this one. [Picks up photo] Oh, and her.
Louis
[Clips up a photo] Tell me one thing wrong about this photo.
[Walks up] Well, for one thing, I'm not in it.
Louis
Please!
Mmm? Your lens is not entirely clean. And you see here in the corner? And on this night you only had eight frames of film on you. A haunting set of clouds moved in minutes after your last shot. If it lacks singularity, there is nothing wrong per se with the frame but... perhaps, going forward, when the moon is your favored source of light... a little patience? If it lacks singularity, there is nothing wrong per se with the frame but... perhaps, going forward, when the moon is your favored source of light... a little patience?
[From below in streets] What light through yonder window breaks? It is there, no? Northwest and Louis is...
Louis
Romeo!
...the sun? Barely Balthasar. The moon? [Louis goes out onto balcony] I was wondering if you wanted to take one of our walks!
You can't think of it as a waste of time, Louis. What's two years? I pretended to be actor for two years. And your dalliance with that manipulative gremlin? Well... what is vampire life but poor decisions, stacked next to better ones. [Sound of door opening]
Speaking of poor decisions.
Louis! Armand knows all about Lestat! How long's he known?!
Louis
The whole time.
Louis
Read our minds, first night at the theater.
But you colored it in for him, painted a picture?! Who did the poisoning, who did the throat cutting!
Louis
You can trust Armand.
What about, "Me and you"?! "You and me! Me and you!"
Louis
New Orleans, unhappy. Vampire homeland, unhappy. Paris, unhappy. Comes the coven, you're beaming like the whole world went technicolor.
What the fսck's gone on without me here?
Louis
I didn't want to wreck that for you and this whole time...
Louis
..he hasn't betrayed our trust or told our secret!
Gotta be chasing it! Except he just threatened me with it!
Louis
Doesn't sound like him.
Doesn't sound like him?! Oh, forgot! Love makes you stupid! Makes you fickle and weak and blind! Let me guess, he's your companion finally?! Well, good for fսcking you! You and him! Him and you! [Swipes down photo drying line] You and fսcking him! Picked another one over me! [Storms out room]
Louis
[Follows her passionately pointing] You picked the coven! You left me! Go sit in your choice, sister! [She slams door] Go sit in it!
The wilderness that is our daughter. [Louis stares hard in reluctant admittance looks at photo of Armand starting to incinerate and extinguishes it and looks back at Lestat] Hmm.
Louis
Shall we hunt?
Interview with the Vampire · 220 quotes
