Quotes from Thomas Harris

Writing novels is the hardest thing I've ever done, including digging irrigation ditches.

If you spend time in a mental hospital you pick up the drill. You could pass as an orderly, get a job doing it when you got out," Graham said.

The intimacy of the detail - why The Silence of the Lambs is quite possibly the Thriller Writer's bible.

Problem solving is hunting. It's a savage pleasure and we're born to it.

Far beneath the rusty Baltimore dawn, stirrings in the maximum security ward. Down where it is never dark the tormented sense beginning day as oysters in a barrel open to their lost tide. God's creatures who cried themselves to sleep stirred to cry again and the ravers cleared their throats.

Here, he's resting on the examining table. Pulse seventy-two. Here, he grabs the nurse's head and pulls her down to him. Here, he is subdued by the attendant. He didn't resist, by the way, though the attendant dislocated his shoulder. Do you notice the strange thing? His pulse never got over eighty-five. Even when he tore out her tongue.

HOW DO you behave when you know the conventional honors are dross?

I say what I mean. Would you like it better if I said 'I'm glad you find me so.' That would be a little fancier, and equally true.

Barney did not reply. He looked at Krendler as though the left and right hemispheres of Krendler's brain were two dogs stuck together.

The damp floor of the Internet sprouted Lecter theories like toadstools and sightings of the doctor rivaled those of Elvis in number.

Before his Becoming, he would not have dared any of this. Now he realized he could do anything. Anything. Anything.

Molly was the same height as Graham, five feet ten inches. A level kiss in public carries a pleasant jolt, possibly because level kisses usually are exchanged in bed.

Let's do, let's get some handles. I don't know why I'm talking about this stuff. Look, I love you and I miss you and you're doing the right thing. It's costing you too, I know that. I'm here and I'll be here whenever you come home, or I'll meet you anywhere, anytime. That's what.

Will Graham, the keenest hound ever to run in Crawford's pack, was a legend at the Academy; he was also a drunk in Florida now with a face that was hard to look at, they said.

And the study?" "A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone. Go back to school, little Starling.

Pictures ... flashed on her in sudden color, too much color, shocking color, the color that leaps out of black when lightning strikes at night.

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It's hard to have anything, isn't it? Rare to get it, hard to keep it. This is a damn slippery planet.

Sure, a surgeon can stand to look at a mutilated body, Crawford said, crumpling his cup and stepping on the pedal of the covered wastebasket. But I don't think a doctor can stand to see a life wasted.

Mixed hungers crossed his face; it was Krendler's nature to both appreciate Starling's leg and look for the hamstring.

Oh wrangling schools, that search what fire Shall burn this world had none the wit Unto this knowledge to aspire That this her fever might be it? I'm so sorry about Bella, Jack.

No. You know—having to look. It's always bad, but you get so you can function anyway, as long as they're dead. The hospital, interviews, that's worse. You have to shake it off and keep on thinking. I don't believe I could do it now. I could make myself look, but I'd shut down the thinking.

Barney was nearly through with his workout, cooling down on a bike, when he realized he was not alone in the room.

He came back to the car, long legs lifting high in the snow, and there was snow in his hair and on his eyelashes and I remembered that I love him. It felt like something breaking with a little pain and spilling warm.