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You must understand that when you are writing a novel you are not making anything up. It's all there and you just have to find it.

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
Find
Must
Writing
Novel
Making
Understand
Anything

More quotes by Thomas Harris

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I am the dragon, and you call me insane.
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 occured to Starling how much Roden would benefit from an elbow smash in the hinge of his jaw.
Thomas Harris
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I would not have had that happen to you. Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.
Thomas Harris
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When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.
Thomas Harris
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I found, and find, the scrutiny of Dr. Lecter uncomfortable, intrusive, like the humming of your thoughts when they x-ray your head.
Thomas Harris
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And be grateful. Our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real.
Thomas Harris
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Human emotions are a gift from our animal ancestors. Cruelty is a gift humanity has given itself.
Thomas Harris
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I think it's easy to mistake understanding for empathy - we want empathy so badly. Maybe learning to make that distinction is part of growing up. It's hard and ugly to know somebody can understand you without even liking you.
Thomas Harris
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I love myself that much and I will never apologize to you.
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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Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.
Thomas Harris
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Fear comes with imagination, it’s a penalty, it’s the price of imagination.
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.
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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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
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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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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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Problem-solving is hunting it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.
Thomas Harris