Hannibal (2001)

Anthony Hopkins: Hannibal Lecter

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Quotes 

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

• [last lines] 

  Hannibal Lecter : 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 Lecter : Tell me Clarice, would you ever say to me "Stop. If you loved me, you'd stop"?

  Clarice Starling : Not in a thousand years.

  Hannibal Lecter : "Not in a thousand years"... That's my girl.

• Hannibal Lecter : ...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.

• Allegra Pazzi : Dr. Fell, do you believe a man could become so obsessed with a woman, from a single encounter?

  Hannibal Lecter : 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?

• [Repeated line] 

  Hannibal Lecter : Okey-dokey. Here we go.

• Hannibal Lecter : Bowels in or bowels out?

• Clarice Starling : I'll cut you loose. If you touch me, I'll shoot you.

  Hannibal Lecter : Understood.

  Clarice Starling : Do right, and you'll live through this.

  Hannibal Lecter : Spoken like a true Protestant.

• Mason Verger : Cordell, shoot him! Get the gun and shoot him!

  Cordell Doemling : Go into the pen?

  Mason Verger : Yes!

  Cordell Doemling : No, I'm staying out of this.

  Mason Verger : You're involved, is what you are, in all of it! Now do it!

  Cordell Doemling : No.

  Mason Verger : Yes!

  Hannibal Lecter : [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.

• Hannibal Lecter : Given the chance, you would deny me my life, wouldn't you?

  Clarice Starling : Not your life.

  Hannibal Lecter : Just my freedom. You'd take that from me.

• Hannibal Lecter : 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.

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

• [apparently about to cut Starling's hand off with a cleaver] 

  Hannibal Lecter : This is really gonna hurt.

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

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

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

• Hannibal Lecter : [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 Lecter : 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".

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

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

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

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

• Clarice Starling : Your profile at the border stations has five features. I'll trade you...

  Hannibal Lecter : "Trade"?

  Clarice Starling : Stop now and I'll tell you what they are.

  Hannibal Lecter : How does that word taste to you, Clarice? Hmm? Cheap and metallic, like sucking on a greasy coin?

• [Hannibal and Mason see each other for the first time in years] 

  Mason Verger : 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 Verger : 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 Verger : 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 Lecter : [perfectly calm]  No, Mason... No, I much prefer you the way you are.

  Mason Verger : [holding back anger]  So... dinner at 8.

• Hannibal Lecter : What if I did it for you?

  Clarice Starling : Did what?

  Hannibal Lecter : 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 Lecter : 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.

• Hannibal Lecter : Have you met my friend Mason Verger?

  Clarice Starling : Yes

  Hannibal Lecter : Face to face, so to speak?

  Clarice Starling : Face to face.

  Hannibal Lecter : Attractive, isn't he?

• Mason Verger : 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 Lecter : Mason, would you like a popper?

  Mason Verger : 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 Verger : The good doctor approached me with a piece of broken mirror. "Try this,"

  Hannibal Lecter : Try peeling off your face...

  Mason Verger : "... and feeding it to the dogs."

  [In the flashback, Mason does so, still laughing hysterically] 

  Hannibal Lecter : No, I can still see it. Try again! No, I'm afraid not...

  Mason Verger : That's entertainment!

  [dissolve to the present] 

  Mason Verger : Ah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

• Hannibal Lecter : Good evening, Clarice! Just like old times.

  Clarice Starling : Shut up.

• Hannibal Lecter : See ya 'round.

• Hannibal Lecter : I imagine your little brother must smell almost as bad as you do by now.

• Hannibal Lecter : [Prying the knife away from Clarice]  Come on Clarice. No. That's a good girl. Good.

• Allegra Pazzi : Are you from America, doctor?

  Hannibal Lecter : Not originally. I've traveled there.

  Allegra Pazzi : I've always wanted to visit. New England, especially.

  Hannibal Lecter : I've enjoyed many excellent meals there.

• Hannibal Lecter : Is this Clarice? Why, hello Clarice.

• Hannibal Lecter : Are You confused?

• Hannibal Lecter : What have you got in your hand, Clarice? Something to bash me over the head with?