" I went through mortal life like a blind man groping from solid object to solid obhect. It was only when I became a vampire that I respected for the first time all of life. I never saw a living, pulsing human being until I was a vampire; I never knew what life was until it ran out in a red gush over my lips, my hands! "

― Anne Rice , Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)