“A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone.”
This line in itself is a joke that requires higher contextual thinking. At the time this book is set, Lecter is likely on or would be prescribed a category of drugs called monoamine oxidase inhibitors, “MAOIs”. These drugs help to regulate hormones in the brain and are used to treat depression as well as personality disorders. They have been phased out of use due to dietary restrictions associated with them. Three of the foods that people are specifically forbidden to eat are liver, fava beans, and red wine. The fact that he is able to eat this meal without consequence alludes to the fact that he is off of his medication while practicing psychiatry. This joke is a specific example of how Lecter maintains incredible cleverness and eloquence while simultaneously indulging in the barbaric action of cannibalism. This line also serves as a warning to Clarice Starling, as Lecter is informing her as to what exactly can happen to a person that bores him or wastes his time.
“What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.”
By breaking down the thought process that Jame Gumb undergoes when choosing his victims, Lecter allows himself to be more intimately acquainted with the way that the killer thinks. Being a murderer himself, Hannibal knows what sort of impulses bring about the desire to take a person’s life. In this scenario, he aids Clarice in trying to pinpoint “Buffalo Bill’s” location by prompting her to think about why Gumb is killing in the first place. Lecter is essentially saying that when a person desires something to a large enough extent, it becomes more and more difficult to stop themselves from taking it. And when a person finally does succumb to these desires, they take the first chance that they get to fulfill their need. This implication is what allows Starling to conclude that Gumb operates in a location specific to where the girls were first abducted. He covets the victims that are accessible to him.
