“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told. ”

“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.”

“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.”

“In her way, she was a hard one. Faith in any sort of natural justice was nothing but a night light; she knew of that. Whatever she did, she would end the same way with everyone does: flat on her back with a tube in her nose, wondering, "Is this all?”

“I think it's easy to mistake understanding for empathy - we want empathy so badly. Maybe learning to make that distinction is part of growing up. It's hard and ugly to know somebody can understand you without even liking you.”

“It's hard to have anything isn't it? Rare to get it, hard to keep it. This is a damn slippery planet.”

“... the washing machine's rhythm was like a giant heartbeat, and the rush of its waters was what the unborn hear- our last memory of peace.”