Novelist Anne Rice, 73, is the author of 36 books, including “Interview With the Vampire,” “Queen of the Damned” and her latest, “Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles” (Knopf). She spoke with Marc Myers.

I come from a family of storytellers. My mother, my aunts and my grandmother all loved to talk and knew how to make you listen. Growing up in New Orleans in the late 1940s, I heard elaborate stories about everyone and everything. I also loved listening to stories on radio dramas and at the movies, where vampires first fascinated...