How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Silence of the Lambs.
Quote #4
CLARICE: Yes, I'm still in training at the Academy. We're talking about psychology, Doctor, not the Bureau. Can you decide for yourself whether or not I'm qualified?
Here we start to see Clarice's cleverness come forward. She's trying a bit of flattery to see if she can get into the doctor's good graces. It works—for a while, at least. Lecter ultimately thinks the questionnaire ploy is insulting to his intelligence, and sends her away.
Quote #5
CLARICE: It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
LECTER: I didn't.
CLARICE: No. No, you ate yours.
Clarice's cleverness here is twofold. First, she knows her Serial Killer 101. But more importantly, her directness with the doctor impresses him, and it's at this moment when he agrees to see the questionnaire.
Quote #6
CLARICE: Lecter altered or destroyed most of his patients' histories, so there's no record of anyone named Mofet, but I thought the "yourself" reference was too hokey for Lecter, so I figured he's from Baltimore and I looked in the phone book and there's a "Your Self" storage facility right outside of downtown Baltimore, sir. […] The contract is in the name of a Miss Hester Mofet.
Lecter had earlier told Clarice to "Look at yourself." That just didn't sit right with her, didn't sound like something he'd say, so she takes it to have some other meaning and comes up with this storage facility. Either Clarice is a genius or the novelist really needed to move the plot along. This seems a little too clever.