Quotes from work

The Silence of the Lambs

“What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.”

“Good-bye Clarice. Will you let me know if ever the lambs stop screaming?" "Yes." Pembry was taking her arm. It was go or fight him. "Yes," she said. "I'll tell you." "Do you promise?""Yes.”

“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti”

“She didn't give a damn about some of them, but she had grown to learn that inattention can be a stratagem to avoid pain, and that it is often misread as shallowness and indifference.”

“I expect most psychiatrists have a patient or two they'd like to refer to me.”

“Nothing made me happen. I happened.”

“Silence can mock.”

“But the face on the pillow, rosy in the firelight, is certainly that of Clarice Starling, and she sleeps deeply, sweetly, in the silence of the lambs.”

“Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened. You can't reduce me to a set of influences.”

“I would not have had that happen to you. Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.”

“Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.”

“I have no plans to call on you, Clarice, the world being more interesting with you in it.”

“Can you smell his sweat? That peculiar goatish odor is trans-3-methyl-2 hexenoic acid. Remember it, it's the smell of schizophrenia.”

“Back at his chair he cannot remember what he was reading. He feels the books beside him to find the one that is warm.”

“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.”

“Life's too slippery for books, Clarice; anger appears as lust, lupus presents as hives.”

“When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.”

“Gratitude’s got a short half-life, Clarice.”

“I'm not sure you get wiser as you get older, Starling, but you do learn to dodge a certain amount of hell.”