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By Thomas Harris

-- God’s choices in inflicting suffering are not satisfactory to us, nor are they understandable, unless innocence offends him. Clearly he needs some help in directing the blind fury with which he flogs the earth.

-- In that moment when the connection is made, in that synaptic spasm of completion when the thought drives through the red fuse, is our keenest pleasure.

-- The exposition of Atrocious Torture Instruments could not fail to appear to a connoisseur of the worst in mankind. But the essence of the worst, the true asafetida of the human spirit, is not found in the Iron Maiden or the whetted edge; the Elemental Ugliness is found in the faces of the crowd.

-- We assign a moment to decision, to dignify the process as a timely result of rational and conscious thought. But decisions are made of kneaded feelings; they are more often a lump than a sum.

-- “Looks are an accident, Dr. Lecter.” “If comeliness were earned, you’d still be beautiful.”