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FBI Agent-in-training, CLARICE STARLING Well, perhaps you’d care to lend us your view on this questionnaire, sir? She takes out a form from her bag. DR. HANNIBAL LECTOR Oh, no, no, no, no. You were doing fine. You had been courteous and receptive to courtesy. You had established trust with the embarassing truth about Miggs. And now this ham-handed segue into your questionnaire. It won’t do. CLARICE I’m only asking you to look at this. Either you will or you won’t. DR. LECTOR Yeah, Jack Crawford must be very busy indeed if he’s recruiting help from the student body. Busy hunting that new one- Buffalo Bill. What a naughty boy he is. Do you know why he’s called Buffalo Bill? Please tell me. The newspapers won’t say. CLARICE It started as a bad joke in Kansas City Homicide. They said, "This one likes to skin his humps." DR. LECTOR Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling? Thrill me with your acumen. CLARICE It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophy from their victims. DR. LECTOR I didn’t. CLARICE No. No, you ate yours. DR. LECTOR (gesturing to the questionnaire) You send that through now. CLARICE gets up and puts the survey form in the drawer in the cell and pushes it through to him. DR. LECTOR (picking up the form) Oh, Agent Starling, you think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool? CLARICE No. I thought that your knowledge-- DR. LECTOR --You’re so ambitious, aren’t you? Do you know what you look like with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition’s given you length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? How quickly the boys found you. All those tedious sticking fumblings in the back seats of cars while you could only dream of getting out. Getting anywhere. Getting all the way to the FBI. CLARICE You see a lot, doctor. But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you’re afraid to? DR. LECTOR A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. You fly back to school now, little Starling. Fly, fly, fly. CLARICE gets up and leaves. |