Hannibal Lecter:
Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though, about yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no? Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice Starling:
Go, Doctor.
Hannibal Lecter:
What is your worst memory of childhood?
Clarice Starling:
The death of my father.
Hannibal Lecter:
Tell me about it and don't lie, or I'll know.
Clarice Starling:
He was a town marshal, and... one night, he surprised two burglars coming out the back of a drugstore. They shot him.
Hannibal Lecter:
Was he killed outright?
Clarice Starling:
No, he was very strong, he lasted more than a month. My mother died when I was very young, so... my father had become the whole world to me, and, when he left me, I had nothing. I was ten years old.
Hannibal Lector:
You're very frank, Clarice. I think it would be quite something to know you in private life.
Clarice Starling:
Quid pro quo, Doctor.
Hannibal Lector:
So tell me about Miss West Virginia. Was she a large girl?
Clarice Starling:
Yes.
Hannibal Lector:
Big through the hips? Roomy?
Clarice Starling:
They all were.
Hannibal Lector:
What else?
Clarice Starling:
She had an object deliberately inserted into her throat. Now, that hasn't been made public yet. We don't know what it means.
Hannibal Lector:
Was it a butterfly?
Clarice Starling:
Yes. A moth. Just like the one we found in Benjamin Raspail's head an hour ago. Why does he place them there, Doctor?
Hannibal Lecter:
The significance of the moth is change. Caterpillar into chrysalis, or pupa, and from thence into beauty. Our Billy wants to change, too.
