The Silence of the Lambs quotes

View Quote Dr. Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice: He kills women.
Dr. Lecter: No, that is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does, what needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice: Anger, social resentment, sexual frustration ...
Dr. Lecter: No, he covets. That's his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer, now.
Clarice: No. We just ...
Dr. Lecter: No. 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?

View Quote [To a mirror] Would you **** me? I'd **** me. I'd **** me hard.

View Quote Dr. Lecter: Now then, tell me. What did Miggs say to you? Multiple Miggs in the next cell. He hissed at you. What did he say?
Clarice: He said, "I can smell your ****."
Dr. Lecter: I see. I, myself, cannot. You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps ... but not today.

View Quote It rubs the lotion on its skin and does as its told. it does this whnever its told or else it gets the hose again. Now it puts the lotion in the basket. PUT THE ****ING LOTION IN THE BASKET.

View Quote Dr. Lecter: [shouts] No! [normal voice] I will listen now. After your father's murder, you were orphaned. You were ten years old. You went to live with cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana. And ...?
Clarice: [tears begin forming in her eyes] And one morning, I just ran away.
Dr. Lecter: Not "just", Clarice. What set you off? You started at what time?
Clarice: Early, still dark.
Dr. Lecter: Then something woke you, didn't it? Was it a dream? What was it?
Clarice: I heard a strange noise.
Dr. Lecter: What was it?
Clarice: It was ... screaming. Some kind of screaming, like a child's voice.
Dr. Lecter: What did you do?
Clarice: I went downstairs, outside. I crept up into the barn. I was so scared to look inside, but I had to.
Dr. Lecter: And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?
Clarice: Lambs. And they were screaming.
Dr. Lecter: They were slaughtering the spring lambs?
Clarice: And they were screaming.
Dr. Lecter: And you ran away?
Clarice: No. First I tried to free them. I ... I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn't run.
Dr. Lecter: But you could and you did, didn't you?
Clarice: Yes. I took one lamb, and I ran away as fast as I could.
Dr. Lecter: Where were you going, Clarice?
Clarice: I don't know. I didn't have any food, any water, and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but ... he was so heavy. So heavy. I didn't get more than a few miles when the sheriff's car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again.
Dr. Lecter: What became of your lamb, Clarice?
Clarice: They killed him.
Dr. Lecter: You still wake up sometimes, don't you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.
Clarice: Yes.
Dr. Lecter: And you think if you save poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don't you? You think if Catherine lives, you won't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.
Clarice: I don't know. I don't know.
Dr. Lecter: Thank you, Clarice. Thank you.
Clarice: Tell me his name, Doctor.
Dr. Lecter: ... Dr. Chilton, I presume. I think you know each other.
Dr. Chilton: Okay. Let's go.
Clarice: It's your turn, Doctor.
Dr. Chilton: Out!
Clarice: Tell me his name!
Boyle: I'm sorry, ma'am. We've got orders. We have to put you on a plane. Come on, now.
[Chilton and the guards start leading Clarice out]
Dr. Lecter: Brave Clarice. You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won't you?
Clarice: Tell me his name, Doctor!
Dr. Lecter: Clarice, your case file. Goodbye, Clarice.

View Quote Clarice: Good afternoon. Sorry to bother you. I'm looking for Mrs Lippman's family.
Jame Gumb: No, Lippmans don't live here any more.
Clarice: Excuse me. I really need to speak with you.
Jame Gumb: What's the problem, officer?
Clarice: I'm investigating the death of Fredrica Bimmel. Your name is?
Jame: Oh, uh, Jack Gordon.
Clarice: Mr. Gordon, good, uh ... well, Frederica used to work for Mrs. Lippman. Did you know her?
Jame: No, nuh-uh. Oh, wait ... was she a great, big, fat person?
Clarice: Yeah, she was a big girl, sir.
Jame: Yeah, I may've ... no, I read about her in the newspaper. Um, Mrs. Lippman had a son, though, maybe he could help you. I got his card in here someplace. Do you wanna come in while I look for it?
Clarice: May I?
Jame: Yeah, sure. Are you close to catching somebody, you think?
Clarice: Yes. We may be. Did you ... take over this place after Mrs. Lippman died, is that right?
Jame: Yeah, I – I bought this house ... two years ago.
Clarice: [looking around] Did she leave any records? Any business records, tax forms, lists of employees?
Jame: No, nothing like that at all. Say, does the FBI learn something? The police around here don't seem to have the first clue.
[Clarice notices a moth]
Jame: ... I mean, have you got, like, a description, fingerprints, anything like that?
Clarice: No. No, I don't.
[Clarice unbuttons her gun holster]
Jame: Oh, here's that number!
Clarice: Very good, Mr. Gordon. May I use your phone, please?
Jame: [starts laughing] Sure you can use me phone.
Clarice: [draws her gun] Freeze! Put your hands over your head and turn around! Spread your legs! Spread your legs! Put your hands in the back ... thumbs up – freeze!
[Jame runs off]

View Quote [To Catherine] Are you about a size 14?

View Quote I've been in this room for eight years now, Clarice. I know they will never ever let me out while I'm alive. What I want is a view. I want a window where I can see a tree, or even water. I want to be in a federal institution, far away from Dr. Chilton.

View Quote Ardelia: Is this Lecter's handwriting? "Clarice, doesn't this random scattering of sites seem desperately random – like the elaborations of a bad liar? Ta, Hannibal Lecter."
Clarice: "Desperately random." What does he mean?
Ardelia: Not random at all, maybe. Like there's some pattern here ...?
Clarice: But there is no pattern, or the computers would've nailed it. They're even found in random order.
Ardelia: Random because of the one girl. The one he weighted down.
Clarice: Oh, Fredrica Bimmel, from ... Belvedere, Ohio. First girl taken, third body found. Why?
Ardelia: 'Cause she didn't drift. He weighted her down.
Clarice: What did Lecter say about ... "first principles"?
Ardelia: Simplicity ...
Clarice: What does this guy do? He "covets". How do we first start to covet?
Ardelia: "We covet what we see ..."
Clarice: "... every day."
Ardelia: Hot damn, Clarice.
Clarice: He knew her.

View Quote [To Clarice while dying] What's it like to be beautiful?

View Quote Dr. Lecter: Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center. Sounds charming.
Clarice: That's only part of the island. There's a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There's beautiful ...
Dr. Lecter: Terns? If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" for us too. Quid pro quo – I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
[Pause]
Dr. Lecter: Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice: Go, doctor.

View Quote You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. What's your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you ... all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars ... while you could only dream of getting out ... getting anywhere ... getting all the way to the FBI.

View Quote Roden: Sphingid ceratonia, maybe. [cuts open cocoon] Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx.
Pilcher: Weird.
Roden: Better known to his friends as the Death's-head moth.

View Quote Advancement, of course. Listen carefully. Look deep within yourself, Clarice Starling. Go seek out Miss Mofet, an old patient of mine. M-O-F-E-T. Go now, I don't think Miggs could manage again quite so soon, even though he is crazy. [shouting] Go now!

View Quote Murray: [assessing the mutilated "Sergeant Pembry"] He's alive. Sergeant Tate, he's alive!
Sgt. Tate: Get a hold of him more and feel his hand, son, talk to him.
Murray: What do I say?
Sgt. Tate: It's Jim Pembry, now, talk to him, damn it!