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.

You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.

Fear comes with imagination, it’s a penalty, it’s the price of imagination.

… It is not healing to see your childhood home, but it helps you measure whether you are broken, and how and why, assuming you want to know.

When Will Graham could open his right eye, he saw the clock and knew where he was- an intensive-care unit. He knew to watch the clock. Its movement assured him that this was passing, would pass. That's what it was there for.

Lecter is so lucid, so perceptive; he's trained in psychiatry... and he's a mass murderer.

What he has in addition is pure empathy and projection,” Dr. Bloom said. “He can assume your point of view, or mine – and maybe some other points of view that scare and sicken him. It’s an uncomfortable gift, Jack. Perception’s a tool that’s pointed on both ends.