Mads Mikkelsen credited as playing...
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Will Graham has a remarkably vivid imagination. Beautiful. Pure empathy. Nothing he can't understand and that terrifies him.
- Dr. Sutcliffe: So you set his mind on fire.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Imagination is an interesting accelerant for a fever.
- Dr. Sutcliffe: How far is this going to go? Put out the fire or let him burn?
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Will's my friend. We'll put out the fire. When it's necessary.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: When you take him to a crime scene, Jack, the very air has screams smeared on it. In those places, he doesn't just reflect, he absorbs.
- Will Graham: I still have the coppery smell of blood on my hands. I can't remember seeing her dead body before I saw myself killing her.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Those memories sank out of sight, yet you're aware of their absence.
- Will Graham: They left a slick on the surface of my mind where they're supposed to be.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Where you hope they're supposed to be, but fear they never were
- Will Graham: There's a grandiosity in the violence I imagined that feels more real than what I know is true.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: What do you know to be true?
- Will Graham: I know I didn't kill her. Couldn't have. But I remember cutting into her. I remember watching her die.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: You must overcome these delusions that are disguising your reality. What savage delusions does this killer have?
- Will Graham: It wasn't savage. It was desperate... sad. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked through me, past me. Like I was a stranger.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: You have to honestly confront your limitations with what you do and how it affects you.
- Will Graham: If by limitations you mean the difference between sanity and insanity... I don't accept that.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: What do you accept?
- Will Graham: I know what kind of crazy I am and this is not that kind of crazy. This could be seizures. This could be a tumor. A blood clot.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: I can recommend a neurologist. But if it isn't physiological, then you have to accept what you're struggling with is mental illness.
- Will Graham: I feel my nerves clicking like roller coaster cogs pulling up to the inevitable long plunge.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Quick sounds. Quickly ended.
- Will Graham: Abigail ended Nicholas Boyle like a burst balloon. She took a life.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: You've taken a life.
- Will Graham: So have you.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: You're grieving, Will. Not for the life you have taken, but for the life that was taken from you. If Abigail could have started over, left the horror of her father behind, so could've you. You could untangle yourself from the madness and the murder, clear your mind.
- Will Graham: My mind has never been clear.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: And now you fear it never will. We both know the unreality of taking a life, of people who die when we have no other choice. We know in those moments they're not flesh, but light and air and color.
- Will Graham: Isn't that what it is to be alive?
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: Do you feel alive, Will?
- Will Graham: I feel like I'm fading.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter: The problem Will has is too many mirror neurons. Our heads are filled with them when we're children. Supposed to help us socialize and melt away. But Will held onto his, which makes knowing who he is a challenge. He's always reflecting those around him.