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What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.

Thomas Harris

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Thomas Harris
Age: 84
Born: 1940
Born: April 11
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Jackson
Tennessee
William Thomas Harris III
Needs
Principal
Thing
Serve
Every
Killing
Begin
Doe
Firsts
Covets
Need
Coveting
First
Covet

More quotes by Thomas Harris

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He was numb except for dreading the loss of numbness.
Thomas Harris
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Hannibal Lecter: We live in a primitive time - don't we, Will? - neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.
Thomas Harris
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It occured to Starling how much Roden would benefit from an elbow smash in the hinge of his jaw.
Thomas Harris
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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.
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The very air had screams smeared on it. He flinched from the noise in this silent room.
Thomas Harris
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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
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You would think such a day would tremble to begin . . .
Thomas Harris
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It's fear, Jack. The man deals with a huge amount of fear.' Because he got hurt?' No, not entirely. Fear comes with imagination, it's a penalty, it's the price of imagination.
Thomas Harris
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One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.
Thomas Harris
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You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.
Thomas Harris
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When you feel strain, keep your mouth shut if you can.
Thomas Harris
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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
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… It is not healing to see your childhood home, but it helps you measure whether you are broken, and how and why, assuming you want to know.
Thomas Harris
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Problem-solving is hunting it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.
Thomas Harris
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The tragedy is not to die, but to be wasted.
Thomas Harris
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Intense fear comes in waves the body can't stand it for long at a time.
Thomas Harris
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Funerals often make us want sex-it's one in the eye for death.
Thomas Harris
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What he has in addition is pure empathy and projection,” Dr. Bloom said. “He can assume your point of view, or mine – and maybe some other points of view that scare and sicken him. It’s an uncomfortable gift, Jack. Perception’s a tool that’s pointed on both ends.
Thomas Harris
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Nothing made me happen. I happened.
Thomas Harris
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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.
Thomas Harris