The Silence of the Lambs

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The Silence of the Lambs Quotes

#1
Jack Crawford: I remember you from my seminar at UVA. You grilled me pretty hard, as I recall, on the bureau's civil rights record in the Hoover years. I gave you an A.
Clarice Starling: A-minus, Sir.
#2
Dr. Frederick 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.
#3
Hannibal 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's 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 is 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 Starling: You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to 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.
#4
Murray: Is it true what they're sayin', he's some kinda vampire?
Clarice Starling: They don't have a name for what he is.
#5
Hannibal Lecter: Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?
#6
Pilcher: What do you do when you're not detecting, Agent Starling?
Clarice Starling: I try to be a student, Dr. Pilcher.
Pilcher: Ever go out for cheeseburgers and beer? The amusing house wine?
Clarice Starling: Are you hitting on me, doctor?
Pilcher: Yes.
#7
Hannibal Lecter: "Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center." Sounds charming.
Clarice Starling: That's only a part of the island. There's a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There's beautiful...
Hannibal Lecter: [cuts her off] Terns? Mmh. If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" with 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]
Hannibal Lecter: Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice Starling: Go, doctor.
#8
Hannibal Lecter: People will say we're in love.
#9
Clarice Starling: Did you do all these drawings, Doctor?
Hannibal Lecter: Ah. That is the Duomo seen from the Belvedere. Do you know Florence?
Clarice Starling: All that detail just from memory, sir?
Hannibal Lecter: Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view.
#10
Hannibal 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 Starling: He said, "I can smell your cunt."
Hannibal Lecter: I see. I myself cannot. You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps, but not today.
#11
Jack Crawford: Look at it, Starling. Tell me what you see.
#12
Clarice Starling: If you didn't kill him, then who did, sir?
Hannibal Lecter: Who can say. Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.
#13
Clarice Starling: But I thought the "yourself" reference was too hokey for Lecter, so I figured he's from Baltimore, and I looked in the phone book, and there's a "Your Self Storage" facility, right outside of downtown Baltimore, sir.
#14
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!
#15
Hannibal Lecter: Jack Crawford is helping your career isn't he? Apparently he likes you and you like him too.
Clarice Starling: I never thought about it.
Hannibal Lecter: Do you think that Jack Crawford wants you sexually? True, he is much older but do you think he visualizes scenarios, exchanges, fucking you?
Clarice Starling: That doesn't interest me Doctor and frankly, it's, it's the sort of thing that Miggs would say.
Hannibal Lecter: Not anymore.
#16
Clarice Starling: Your name is?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Oh, uh Jack Gordon.
Clarice Starling: Mr. Gordon, good, uh... well Frederica used to work for Mrs. Lippman. Did you know her?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: No, nuh-uh. Oh wait... was she a great big fat person?
Clarice Starling: Yeah she was a big girl, sir.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: 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?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Are you close to catching somebody you think?
Clarice Starling: Yes. We may be. Did you... take over this place after Mrs. Lippman died, is that right?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Yeah I - I bought this house... two years ago.
Clarice Starling: [looking around] Did she leave any records? Any business records, tax forms, lists of employees?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: No, nothin' like that at all. Say, does the FBI learn somethin? The police around here don't seem to have the first clue. [Clarice notices a moth]... I mean have you got like a description, fingerprints, anything like that?
Clarice Starling: No. No I don't. [Clarice unbuttons her gun holster]
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Oh, here's that number!
Clarice Starling: Very good Mr. Gordon. May I use your phone please?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: [Gumb starts laughing] Sure you can use me phone.
Clarice Starling: [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! [Gumb runs off]
#17
Hannibal Lecter: There are three major centers for transsexual surgery - Johns Hopkins, University of Minnesota, and Columbus Medical Center.
#18
[first lines]
FBI instructor: Starling! Starling! Crawford wants to see you in his office.
Clarice Starling: Thank you, sir.
#19
Clarice Starling: Hester Mofet. It's an anagram, isn't it, Doctor? Hester Mofet, "The rest of me". "Miss the rest of me," meaning that you rented that garage?
#20
Jack Crawford: Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.