“People talk and rumors follow,” I said.“Most people claim that only a person possessed of the devil could write such horror.”“And what do you think?”“You are an angel to me, Eddy, but never bet the devil your head.”“That would make a great title for a story,” I observed.”

“Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from the path. I shall be a litterateur, at least, all my life; nor would I abandon the hopes which still lead me on for all the gold in California.”EDGAR ALLAN POE TO FREDERICK WILLIAM THOMASFEBRUARY 14, 1849”

“Yes, it would nice for this fifty year period, this cradle of all vampire short stories in the English language, to include a vampire tale by Edgar Allan Poe. But the sad answer is that Poe never penned a vampire story.”

“people will forget what you said, people will forget what you do, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

“The difficulty with Poe is not figuring out which of his stories rise to the level required of this collection, but rather which of his stories to exclude from it.”

“Is not our purest form of writing that done without the taint of money?”

“The short story is not, as some believe, a lesser form of literature than the novel.”