The very air had screams smeared on it. He flinched from the noise in this silent room.

There is no murder. We make murder, and it matters only to us.

Human emotions are a gift from our animal ancestors. Cruelty is a gift humanity has given itself.

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.

I collect church collapses, recreationally. Did you see the recent one in Sicily? Marvelous! The facade fell on sixty-five grandmothers at a special mass. Was that evil? If so, who did it? If he's up there, he just loves it, Officer Starling. Typhoid and swans - it all comes from the same place.

Over this odd world, this half the world that's dark now, I have to hunt a thing that lives on tears.

One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.