The advantage of beating a mute is he can't tell on you.

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

We routinely leave our small children in day care among strangers. At the same time, in our guilt we evince paranoia about strangers and foster fear in children.

God's creatures who cried themselves to sleep stirred to cry again.

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.

Intense fear comes in waves; the body can't stand it for long at a time.

Nothing made me happen. I happened.