“In the beginning of the human race there was no genetic load which would cause undesirable traits such as appear in offspring of marriages between relatives today.”

“I'd studied 16th century science and magic. I thought it was strange that people were interested in the same kinds of things my research was about. The more I thought about it, the more intriguing it became and pretty soon I was writing a novel about a reluctant witch and a 1500-year-old vampire.”