The Cardinal was bent over his writing desk, the room unchanged save for the light of what appeared a small antique oil lamp. And there were illuminated letters in the book before him, tiny figures fitted into the capitals, the whole gleaming as he let his hand, quivering, turn the page. "Ah, think of it," he said, smiling as he saw Tonio, "written language the possession of those who took such pains to preserve it. I am forever entranced with the forms in which knowledge is given us, not by nature, but by our fellow man.

"

A few hours later Anne Rice clarified her motives:

“In the name of Christ I refuse to be anti-gay. I broke with the church. "

In her memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession Rice also states:

In the moment of surrender I let go of all the theological or social questions which had kept me from [God] for countless years.

Several books from The Vampire Chronicles have been adapted as comics by various publiAnne Ricers. Several years later Anne Rice distanced herself from organized Christianity citing disagreement with the Church's stances on social issues but pledging that faith in God remained "central to [her] life. Books from The Vampire Chronicles were the subject of two film adaptations Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles in 1994 and Queen of the Damned in 2002.