‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is a 1988 famous psychological horror novel by Thomas Harris.
The book has been extensively read and made into a successful film and television series.
I have selected the most famous quotes from The Silence of the Lambs novel for you.
Table of Contents
The Silence of the Lambs Quotes by Thomas Harris
“Silence and no lambs screaming.” ~ Thomas Harris, Silence Of The Lambs.
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Gratitude’s got a short half-life, Clarice.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Problem solving is hunting. It’s a savage pleasure and we’re born to it.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Baby needs a new pair of shoes,’ he said. ‘My baby doesn’t need any shoes.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“The emperor counsels simplicity. First principles. Of each particular thing, ask: What is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its causal nature?” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“God’s creatures who cried themselves to sleep stirred to cry again.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened. You can’t reduce me to a set of influences.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“She thought for an instant of her late parents. She wondered if they would be ashamed of her now—just that question, not its pertinence, no qualifications – the way we always ask it.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
Relevant Books Quotes: To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes by Harper Lee and The Hobbit Quotes by J.R.R. Tolkien
Best Quotes from The Silence of the Lambs
“Hello Clarice…” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“I’m not sure you get wiser as you get older, Starling, but you do learn to dodge a certain amount of hell.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Sometimes Crawford’s tone reminded Starling of the know-it-all caterpillar in Lewis Caroll.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Curious how things can work on you even when you recognize them.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Orion is above the horizon now, and near it Jupiter, brighter than it will ever be … But i expect you can see it too. Some of our stars are the same.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Silence can mock.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Evil’s just destructive? Then storms are evil, if it’s that simple. And we have fire, and there there’s hail. Underwriters lump it all under ‘Acts of God.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“He knew that a middle-aged man can be so desperate for wisdom he may try to make some up, and how deadly that can be to a youngster who believes him.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“It’s indignity you can’t stand, Hannibal, you’re like a cat that way.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
Quotes from The Silence of the Lambs
“He lives down in a ribcage in the dry leaves of a heart.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“I expect most psychiatrists have a patient or two they’d like to refer to me.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“His empty hands hanging palms forward at his sides, he stood at the window looking to the empty east. He did not look for dawn; east was only the way the window faced.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Over this odd world, this half the world that’s dark now, I have to hunt a thing that lives on tears.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Nothing made me happen. I happened.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“I would not have had that happen to you. Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“You’d better go now; I don’t think Miggs could manage again so soon, even if he is crazy, do you?” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Waste and stupidity get you the worst, that’s what he said. Use this time and it’ll temper you. Now’s the hardest test—not letting rage and frustration keep you from thinking. It’s the core of whether you can command or not.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
Famous The Silence of the Lambs Quotes
“The intimacy of the detail – why The Silence of the Lambs is quite possibly the Thriller Writer’s bible.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin’, but not to help.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“I wonder why my parents didn’t kill me before I was old enough to fool them.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“I know what you’re afraid of. It’s not pain, or solitude. It’s indignity you can’t stand, Hannibal, you’re like a cat that way.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Good-bye Clarice. Will you let me know if ever the lambs stop screaming?” “Yes.” Pembry was taking her arm. It was go or fight him. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll tell you.” “Do you promise?” “Yes.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told. ” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“It was as though committing murders had purged him of lesser rudeness. Or perhaps, Starling thought, it excited him to see her marked in this particular way. She couldn’t tell. The sparks in his eyes flew into his darkness like fireflies down a cave.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“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.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“It was as though committing murders had purged him of lesser rudeness.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
Most Popular Silence of the Lambs Quotes
“It occurred to Starling how much Roden would benefit from an elbow smash in the hinge of his jaw.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Life’s too slippery for books, Clarice; anger appears as lust, lupus presents as hives.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Haven’t you ever had people coming over and no time to shop? You have to make do with what’s in the fridge, Clarice. May I call you Clarice?” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Starling discovered that she had traded feeling frightened for feeling cheap. Of the two, she preferred feeling frightened.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Don’t try to impose any pattern or symmetry on this guy. Stay open and let him show you.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“We don’t begin to covet with imagined things. Coveting is a very literal sin–we begin to covet with tangibles, we begin with what we see every day.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“I have no plans to call on you, Clarice, the world being more interesting with you in it.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn’t it?” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
Great The Silence of the Lambs Quotes
“Inattention can be a stratagem to avoid pain, and that it is often misread as shallowness and indifference.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Problem-solving is hunting; it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“It occurred to Starling how much Roden would benefit from an elbow smash in the hinge of his jaw.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Crawford began to underline. “If you assume when I send you on a job, Starling, you can make an ass out of u and me both.” ~ Thomas Harris, Silence Of The Lambs.
“Almost every place has a moment of the day, an angle and intensity of light, in which it looks its best. When you’re stuck someplace, you learn that time and you look forward to it.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Ready when you are Sergeant Pempbry.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“He cleared his throat. “One good thing about the range, Starling, is there’s no politics out there.” “No?” “You were right to secure that garage up at Baltimore there. You worried about the TV?” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“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.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
“Back at his chair he cannot remember what he was reading. He feels the books beside him to find the one that is warm.” ~ Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs).
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