The best Quotes by Thomas Harris

When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.

Nothing made me happen. I happened.

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

Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness, except greed.

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

Problem-solving is hunting; it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.

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.

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

I would not have had that happen to you. Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.

He lives down in a ribcage in the dry leaves of a heart.

She didn't give a damn about some of them, but she had grown to learn that inattention can be a stratagem to avoid pain, and that it is often misread as shallowness and indifference.

I expect most psychiatrists have a patient or two they'd like to refer to me.

Can you smell his sweat? That peculiar goatish odor is trans-3-methyl-2 hexenoic acid. Remember it, it's the smell of schizophrenia.

We begin by coveting what we see every day! Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?

Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse.

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

I've no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world is more interesting with you in it.

You still wake up sometimes, don't you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.

Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself.

Whenever feasible, one should always try to eat the rude.

We've tried to study him, of course, but he's much too sophisticated for the standardtests.

Clarice Starling: "Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims."
Hannibal Lecter: "I didn't."
Clarice Starling: "No, you ate yours."

He's a monster. Pure psychopath. So rare to capture one alive. From a research point of view, Lecter is our most prized asset.

I'm going to show you why we insist on such precautions. On the evening of July 8, 1981, he complained of chest pains and was taken to the dispensary. His mouthpiece and restraints were removed for an EKG. When the nurse leaned over him, he did this to her. The doctors managed to reset her jaw, more or less. Saved one of her eyes… his pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue.

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

I was bullied as a boy - lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants...

I tend to get bored quickly, which means I must be boring.

I came here in 1974 to do a play, and then I went to L.A. I really like living in America. I feel more at home here than anywhere else.

I remember coming to New York in 1974. I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, 'I'm home.' I felt really at peace here.

How long does it take to get from Louisiana to Alabama?
One Mississippi.

One day, I know the struggle will change. There's got to be a change - not only for Mississippi, not only for the people in the United States, but people all over the world.

They say money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a flight to Mississippi - and that's pretty much the same thing.

Sweat is the urine of the skin.

Walk until the darkness is a memory, and you become the sun on the next traveler's horizon.