Hannibal at eighteen was rooting for Mephistopheles and contemptuous of Faust, but he only half-listened to the climax. He was watching and breathing Lady Murasaki...

How seldom we recognize the sound when the bolt of our fate slides home.

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

It occurred to Dr. Lecter in the moment that with all his knowledge and intrusion, he could never entirely predict her, or own her at all. He could feed the caterpillar, he could whisper through the chrysalis; what hatched out followed its own nature and was beyond him. He wondered if she had the .45 on her leg beneath the gown. Clarice Starling smiled at him then, the cabochons caught the firelight and the monster was lost in self-congratulation at his own exquisite taste and cunning.

I am the dragon, and you call me insane.

Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.

Writing novels is the hardest thing I've ever done, including digging irrigation ditches.