A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Thomas Harris (b. 1940) American writer
The Silence of the Lambs, film (1990) [with Ted Tally]
(Source)
(Source (Video); dialog verified). As spoken by Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector.
Tally modified the lines Harris wrote in his 1988 novel, which in ch. 3 read: "A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone."
Quotations about:
cannibalism
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
In the Feejee islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat their own wives and children. We only devour widows’ houses, & great merchants outwit & absorb the substance of small ones and every man feeds on his neighbor’s labor if he can. It is a milder form of cannibalism.
The fact that boys are allowed to exist at all is evidence of remarkable Christian forbearance among men — were it not for a mawkish humanitarianism, coupled with imperfect digestive powers, we should devour our young, as Nature intended.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
San Francisco News-Letter, “Town Crier” column (c. 1870)
