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

Hannibal Lecter: We live in a primitive time - don't we, Will? - neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.

The most stable elements, Clarice, appear in the middle of the periodic table, roughly between iron and silver. Between iron and silver. I think that is appropriate for you.

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

Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn't it?

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

It's fear, Jack. The man deals with a huge amount of fear.' Because he got hurt?' No, not entirely. Fear comes with imagination, it's a penalty, it's the price of imagination.