How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Casimir had been a typical vampire—the quintessential vampire, in fact. And look what had happened to him! Whereas I… well, I was different. I was active and empathetic and dependable and involved. I wasn't anything like Casimir. (6.94)
Nina starts to put things into perspective: Not only was Casimir a big creepy meanie (he was the one who bit her and turned her into a vampire, after all), he was the embodiment of vampirism. And look where it got him. Nina is positive that she's different than he was, and part of that difference is that she's more active. At least, that's what she likes to tell herself…
Quote #5
What I most admired about him, however, was his vibrancy. You could tell at a glance that he wasn't a vampire, because […] No vampire ever moved in such an energetic way, as if he could barely restrain his enthusiasm or his impatience. (13.112)
When Nina first meets Reuben, she's totally drawn to him. He embodies energy and motion and vibrancy and all the stuff best demonstrated with emphatic jazz hands. It's such a contrast to how vamps move and act that Nina is just blown away. She might be crushing on him a teeny bit, too.
Quote #6
"You keep saying that vampirism is just another form of humanity […] yet you're happy to sit here and let other people suffer!" (17.75)
And Nina loses her temper yet again. Maybe she's not as plagued by inactivity as she fears. Anyway, here she's blowing up at Sanford, who's nay-saying her insistence that they have to rescue Reuben. And she raises a good point: How can Sanford say vampires are basically like other people if he doesn't also believe that vampires should hold themselves to the same standards of empathy and helpfulness that normal people do?