Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
written by Anne Rice, from her novel of the same name
Louis: (voice-over) 1791 was the year it happened. I was 24, younger than you are now. But times were different then. I was a man at that age, the master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been buried in less than half a year. I wanted to join them. I couldn't bear the pain of their loss. I longed to be released from it. I wanted to lose it all. (Louis throws a hand of cards down on a table in bar.) My wealth, my estate, my sanity.
Gambler (John McConnell): How many aces are in that deck? Louis: Are you calling me a cheat? (The gambler throws the table aside, pulls out a gun, and points it at Louis.) Gambler: I'm calling you a piece of stinking offal!
(Louis opens his shirt, revealing his chest. Gambler pulls the gun's hammer back.)
Louis: You lack the courage of your convictions, sir. Do it!
(The gambler does nothing. A whore leads Louis out of the bar, towards a dock. Her pimp follows them.)
Louis: (voice-over) Most of all, I longed for death. I know that now. I invited it. A release from the pain of living. My invitation was open to anyone: to the whore at my side, to the pimp that followed. But it was a vampire that accepted.
Credit and many thanks to Xander for this monologue, it is very much appreciated.