“I'm not sure you get wiser as you get older, Starling, but you do learn to dodge a certain amount of hell.”

“But the face on the pillow, rosy in the firelight, is certainly that of Clarice Starling, and she sleeps deeply, sweetly, in the silence of the lambs.”

“The worm that destroys you is the temptation to agree with your critics, to get their approval.”

“I'm going to cut you loose. With all due respect, Doctor, if you fuck with me I'll shoot you dead, here and now. Do you understand that?"- Clarice"Perfectly."- Hannibal Lecter "Do right and you'll live through this." -Clarice”

“It occured to Starling how much Roden would benefit from an elbow smash in the hinge of his jaw.”

“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.”

“A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone. Go back to school, little Starling.”