Top 50 Quotes From Hannibal

Hannibal: "Io fei gibetto de le mei case." I made my own home be my gallows.

Hannibal: Clarice, there's nothing I'd love more in the world than to chat with you. Unfortunately, you've caught me at an awkward moment. Please forgive me.

Hannibal: I came halfway around the world to watch you run, Clarice. Let me run, eh?

Hannibal: You see, the brain itself feels no pain if that concerns you, Clarice. For example, Paul won't miss this little piece here, which is part of the pre-frontal lobe, which they say is the seat of good manners.

Clarice: Aren't you curious why he dines on his victims?
Paul: And what's the point of that? What, are you writing a book or you catching a crook?
Clarice: To show his contempt for those who exasperate him. Or sometimes to perform a public service. In the case of the flutist Benjamin Raspail, he did it to improve the sound of the Baltimore Philharmonic orchestra.

Mason: I have immunity from the Justice Department, and I have immunity from the Risen Jesus. And nobody beats the Riz!

[last lines]
Hannibal: As your mother tells you, and my mother certainly told me, it is important, she always used to say, always to try new things.

Hannibal: Paul, remember what I said. If you can't be polite to our guests, you have to sit at the kiddies' table.

Hannibal: Tell me Clarice, would you ever say to me "Stop. If you loved me, you'd stop"?
Clarice: Not in a thousand years.
Hannibal: "Not in a thousand years"... That's my girl.

Clarice: Your profile at the border stations has five features. I'll trade you...
Hannibal: "Trade"?
Clarice: Stop now and I'll tell you what they are.
Hannibal: How does that word taste to you, Clarice? Hmm? Cheap and metallic, like sucking on a greasy coin?

Hannibal: What if I did it for you?
Clarice: Did what?
Hannibal: Harmed them, Clarice. The ones who've harmed you. What if I made them scream apologies? No, I shouldn't even say it because you'll feel - with your perfect grasp on right and wrong - that you were somehow accompli- even though you wouldn't be.

Hannibal: Given the chance, you would deny me my life, wouldn't you?
Clarice: Not your life.
Hannibal: Just my freedom. You'd take that from me.

Hannibal: Mason Verger doesn't want to kill me any more than I want to kill him. He just wants to see me suffer in some unimaginable way. He is rather twisted, you know.

Hannibal: Bowels in or bowels out?

Hannibal: Good evening, Clarice! Just like old times.
Clarice: Shut up.

Mason: Oh, coulda, woulda, should. I mean what do you think about the money?
Paul: Five.
Mason: Oh, let's just toss it off like 'five'! Let's say it with the respect it deserves.
Paul: Five-hundred-thousand-dollars.
Mason: Well, that's better, but not much. Will it work?
Paul: It'll work. Won't be pretty.
Mason: What ever is?
[Line disconnects]
Mason: Cocksucker!

Mason: Isn't it funny?
Clarice: What's that?
Mason: You can look at my face, but you shied when I said the name of God.

Mason: I showed him my toys, my noose set-up, among other things - it's where you sort of hang yourself, but not really. It feels good while you, uh... well, you know. Anyway, he said "Mason,"...
Hannibal: Mason, would you like a popper?
Mason: And I said, would I! Oh wow! Once that kicked in I was flying... He said "Mason, show me how you smile to gain the confidence of a child." I smiled, and he said "Oh, I see how you do it."
[In flashback, Mason kicks out a full-length mirror]
Mason: The good doctor approached me with a piece of broken mirror. "Try this,"
Hannibal: Try peeling off your face...
Mason: "... and feeding it to the dogs."
[In the flashback, Mason does so, still laughing hysterically]
Hannibal: No, I can still see it. Try again! No, I'm afraid not...
Mason: That's entertainment!
[dissolve to the present]
Mason: Ah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Mason: Cordell, I think you can leave us now.
Cordell: I thought I might stay. Perhaps... I could be useful.
Mason: You can be *useful* seeing about my lunch.

Clarice: How did he end up at your house?
Mason: I invited him of course... to my pied-à-terre. I came to the door in my nicest come-hither outfit. I was concerned... that he'd be afraid of me. But he didn't seem to be. Afraid of me. That's almost funny now.

Hannibal: ...would they have you back, you think? The FBI? Those people you despise almost as much as they despise you. Would they give you a medal, Clarice, do you think? Would you have it professionally framed and hang it on your wall to look at and remind you of your courage and incorruptibility? All you would need for that, Clarice, is a mirror.

Hannibal: Have you met my friend Mason Verger?
Clarice: Yes
Hannibal: Face to face, so to speak?
Clarice: Face to face.
Hannibal: Attractive, isn't he?

Hannibal: Now you're being rude, and I hate rude people.

[Hannibal and Mason see each other for the first time in years]
Mason: Hylochoerus Meinertzhageni. Ring any bells from high school biology, doctor? No? Well, I could list its most conspicuous features if that would help jog the memory.
[wheels around the restrained Hannibal]
Mason: Three pairs of incisors, one pair of elongated canines, three pairs of molars, four pairs of pre-molars, upper and lower, for a total of forty-four teeth.
[stops to face Hannibal]
Mason: The meal will begin with an hors d'oeuvre tartare: your feet. The main course - the rest of you - won't be served until seven hours later, but during that time, you'll be able to enjoy the effects of the consumed appetizer with a full-bodied saline drip. I guess you wish now you'd fed the rest of me to the dogs, hmm?
Hannibal: [perfectly calm] No, Mason... No, I much prefer you the way you are.
Mason: [holding back anger] So... dinner at 8.

Mason: [as Barney opens a pastry box] I might be able to get a cookie down. What do you think, Cordell?
Cordell: I think it would kill you.

Barney: Do you ever think he might come after you? You ever think about him at all?
Clarice: Well, at least thirty seconds of every day. I can't help it. He's always with me, like a bad habit.

[Mason Verger is going to have Hannibal Lecter fed to wild pigs]
Mason: You will stay for the evening's entertainment, won't you, Cordell?
Cordell: If it's all the same to you, I think I'd rather not.
Mason: Rather not? Or *will* not?

Mason: Cordell, shoot him! Get the gun and shoot him!
Cordell: Go into the pen?
Mason: Yes!
Cordell: No, I'm staying out of this.
Mason: You're involved, is what you are, in all of it! Now do it!
Cordell: No.
Mason: Yes!
Hannibal: [Cordell is standing behind Mason's wheelchair on a ledge overlooking the wild boar] Hey, Cordell! Why don't you push him in? You can always say it was me.

Clarice: All right, everyone, pay attention. Here's the layout...
Officer: Excuse me? I'm Officer Bolton, DC Police.
Clarice: Yes, I can see that from your uniform and badge, how do you do?
Officer: I'm in charge here.
Clarice: You are?
Officer: Yes, ma'am.
Clarice: Officer Bolton, I'm Special Agent Starling, and just so we don't get off on the wrong foot, let me explain why we're all here. I'm here because I know Evelda Drumgo, I've arrested her twice on RICO warrants, I know how she thinks. DEA and BATF, in addition to backing me up, are here for the drugs and weapons. You're here - and it's the only reason you're here - because our mayor wants to appear tough on drugs, especially after his own cocaine conviction, and thinks he can accomplish that by the mere fact of having you tag along with us.
Officer: You got a smart mouth, lady.

Hannibal: Do you know what a roller pigeon is, Barney? They climb high and fast, then roll over and fall just as fast toward the earth. There are shallow rollers and deep rollers. You can't breed two deep rollers, or their young will roll all the way down, hit, and die. Officer Starling is a deep roller, Barney. We should hope one of her parents was not.

Allegra: Dr. Fell, do you believe a man could become so obsessed with a woman, from a single encounter?
Hannibal: Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for her and find nourishment in the very sight of her? I think so. But would she see through the bars of his plight and ache for him?

Clarice: This is from the Guinness Book of World Records, congratulating me on being the female FBI Agent who has shot and killed the most people.

Hannibal: See ya 'round.

Clarice: Paul, what is it with you? I told you to go home to your wife, that was wrong?
Paul: Don't flatter yourself, Starling. That was a long time ago. Why would I hold that against you? Besides, this town is full of cornpone country pussy.

Hannibal: Are you by any chance trying to trace my whereabouts, you naughty girl?

Mason: [watching a tourist's video of Hannibal, waving from the balcony after killing Pazzi] Tell me, Cordell, to you does that look like a wave goodbye... or hello?

Hannibal: Okey-dokey, let's drag these down. They must be as heavy as bodies.

Clarice: I wasn't speaking to you, Mr. Krendler. When I speak to you, you'll know it because I'll look at you.

Hannibal: People don't always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don't advance in life.

Mason: So what do ya think, Cordell? Does Lecter want to fuck her or kill her or eat her alive?
Cordell: Probably all three, though I wouldn't want to predict in what order.

Mason: You know, I thank God for what happened. It was my salvation. Have you accepted Jesus, Agent Starling? Do you have faith?
Clarice: I was raised Lutheran.
Mason: That's not what I asked.

Hannibal: [writing a letter] Dear Clarice, I have followed with enthusiasm the course of your disgrace and public shaming. My own never bothered me, except for the inconvenience of being incarcerated, but you may lack perspective. In our discussions down in the dungeon, it was apparent to me that your father, the dead night watchman, figures largely in your value system. I think your success in putting an end to Jame Gumb's career as a couturier pleased you most because you could imagine your father being pleased. But now, alas, you're in bad odour with the FBI. Do you imagine your daddy being shamed by your disgrace? Do you see him in his plain pine box crushed by your failure; a sorry, petty end of a promising career? What is worst about this humiliation, Clarice? Is it how your failure will reflect on your mommy and daddy? Is your worst fear that people will now and forever believe they were indeed just good old trailer-camp tornado-bait white trash, and that perhaps you are too? By the way I couldn't help noticing on the FBI's rather dull public website that I have been hoisted from the Bureau's archives of the common criminal and elevated to the more prestigious 10 Most Wanted list. Is this coincidence, or are you back on the case? If so, goody goody, 'cause I need to come out of retirement and return to public life. I imagine you sitting in a dark basement room bent over papers and computer screens. Is that accurate? Please tell me truly, Special Agent Starling. Regards, your old pal, Hannibal Lecter, M.D.
[pause]
Hannibal: P.S. Clearly this new assignment is not your choice, rather I suppose it is a part of the bargain, but you accepted it, Clarice. Your job is to craft my doom, so I am not sure how well I should wish you, but I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun. Ta-ta, "H".

Cordell: One's eyes adjust to the darkness.

Hannibal: On a related note I must confess to you, I'm giving very serious thought... to eating your wife.

Clarice: I'll cut you loose. If you touch me, I'll shoot you.
Hannibal: Understood.
Clarice: Do right, and you'll live through this.
Hannibal: Spoken like a true Protestant.

[Repeated line]
Hannibal: Okey-dokey. Here we go.

Paul: Jesus, Starling!
Clarice: Can I help you Mr. Krendler?
Paul: What are you doing sitting in the dark, Starling?
Clarice: Thinkin' about cannibalism.

[apparently about to cut Starling's hand off with a cleaver]
Hannibal: This is really gonna hurt.

Hannibal: Clarice, what are you doing up? You should be resting. Get back to bed.

Mason: When the fox hears the rabbit scream he comes a-runnin'... but not to help.