"Cults and societies of were-creatures is a trope of late eighteenth-century shudder fiction, as the Germans, who came up with it, called it. Folklore almost always depicts were-creatures as being solitaries, and transforming either through religious ritual or exterior influences. For some, the transformation is totemic, for others, it is a sign of psychological difficulties. The archetypal function of these two figures is folklorically consistent: in western traditions, the vampire is a seducer and a sociopath, the were-creature is a rapist and psychotic."

"I think of myself as a multi-genre writer: sometimes what I write sells in the horror market, sometimes in young adult, sometimes in science-fiction, sometimes in mystery, etc. etc. Given the reality of genre-defined publishing, I would be professionally remiss to ignore where my work sells, and who reads it. For the last decade, more than half my work has sold in the horror marketplace; it is very flattering that the readers think enough of my work to recognize it so well."

"Some academics credit Saint-Germain as the source of the rehabilitation of the vampire. I don't know that I agree, but I did deliberately push the Dracular version of vampires as far to the positive as I could and still have a recognizable vampire. I don't know why the readers keep coming back, but I'm delighted that they do."

"The Saint-Germain novels are called historical horror novels for a reason: history is horrifying. Compared to what people do to people, even a really hungry vampire is pretty small potatoes. I try to show the various periods as they saw themselves as much as I can, and to focus on the status and circumstances of women and the constraints of their societies. With those factors crucial to the nature of the story, quick reads are not really possible; it takes time to world-build, and to social-engineer. Context and environment function as tertiary characters in these stories even more than in the rest of my work, and as such, require explication beyond what I do in other genres."

"I...don't think getting bitten in the neck is very erotic. You may notice I never say what it is {Saint-Germain] does, only that it feels really good when he does it. I would like to have him as a friend, though, if he existed outside my imagination. You'd be amazed at the number of his fans who think he actually does exist outside my imagination. It's a great compliment, but also a trifle unnerving."

"I'm a genre writer. People have been sneering for years--that's their business. People who read it, if they like it, won't care. If people insist on being bigoted, that's their problem."

"There are a lot of wonderful fantasies that sank like stones when they were first published in the 1970s and 1980s. With e-books, there's a chance to get these into the hands of readers who otherwise would have to spend a small fortune in the o.p. market."