The Silence of the Lambs quotes

View Quote [Shouting] You don't know what pain is!

View Quote Dr. Lecter: Tell me, Senator, did you nurse Catherine yourself?
Senator Ruth Martin: What?
Dr. Lecter: Did you breast-feed her?
Krendler: Now, wait a minute ...
Sen. Martin: Yes, I did.
Dr. Lecter: Toughened your nipples, didn't it?
Krendler: You son of a bitch!
Dr. Lecter: Amputate a man's leg, and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, ma'am, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?
Sen. Martin: Take this thing back to Baltimore!
Dr. Lecter: Five foot ten, strongly built, about a hundred and eighty pounds; hair blonde, eyes pale blue. He'd be about thirty-five now. He said he lived in Philadelphia, but may have lied. That's all I can remember, Mom, but if I think of any more, I will let you know. Oh, and Senator, just one more thing: love your suit.

View Quote You fly back to school now, little Starling. Fly, fly, fly. Fly, fly, fly.

View Quote Dr. Chilton: I am going to show you why we insist on such precautions. On the evening of July 8th, 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. [pulls out photo] 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.

View Quote Miggs: I can smell your ****.

View Quote Miggs: I bit my wrists so I can diiiiie!

View Quote Dr. Lecter: Jack Crawford is helping your career, isn't he? Apparently he likes you, and you like him too.
Clarice: I never thought about it.
Dr. Lecter: Do you think that Jack Crawford wants you sexually? True, he is much older, but do you think he visualizes scenarios, exchanges, ****ing you?
Clarice: That doesn't interest me, Doctor, and frankly, it's ... it's the sort of thing that Miggs would say.
Dr. Lecter: Not anymore.

View Quote Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn't born a killer, Clarice. Oh no, he was made one through years of systematic abuse. Our Billy hates his own identity, you see. He always has, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying. He wants to be reborn, you see. Our Billy wants to be reborn, Clarice. And he will be reborn.

View Quote A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. [hisses] Note: ranked #21 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

View Quote Clarice: Did you do those drawings, Doctor?
Dr. Lecter: Ah. That is the Duomo seen from the Belvedere. You know Florence?
Clarice: All that detail just from memory?
Dr. Lecter: Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view.

View Quote Quid pro quo Clarice I tell you things you tell me things. Not about this case of course but about yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no Clarice

View Quote Dr. Lecter: 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.
Clarice: You see a lot, doctor. But can you point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don't you – why don't you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you're afraid to.

View Quote Clarice: If you didn't kill him, then who did, sir?
Dr. Lecter: Who can say? Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.

View Quote Clarice: He won't come after me.
Ardelia: Oh, really. How do you know?
Clarice: He won't. I can't explain it ... he – he would consider that rude.

View Quote Jack Crawford: Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.