The Exorcist Quotes
"The man in khaki shook his head, staring down at the laceless, crusted shoes caked thick with debris of the pain of living."
"The fragrance of licorice plant and tamarisk tugged his gaze to poppied hills; to reeded plains; to the ragged, rock-strewn bolt of road that flung itself headlong into dread."
"The brittle remnants of cosmic torment that once made him wonder if matter was Lucifer upward-groping back to his God."
"The bones of man. The brittle remnants of cosmic torment that once made him wonder if matter was Lucifer upward-groping back to his God."
"The stuff of the cosmos, he softly reflected: matter; yet somehow finally spirit."
"Like the brief doomed flare of exploding suns that registers dimly on blind men’s eyes, the beginning of the horror passed almost unnoticed."
"Chris studied the script, her mind never took slogans for the truth, and like a curious bluejay she would peck relentlessly through verbiage to find the glistening, hidden fact."
"Chris turned to a page that was curiously ragged, remembering her director, Burke Dennings, who would tear, with quivering, fluttering hands, a narrow strip from the edge of the handiest page of the script and then slowly chew it, inch by inch, until it was all in a wet ball in his mouth."
"Chris looked at her daughter, at the turned-up nose and freckled face, and on a quick, warm impulse leaned over the bed and kissed her cheek. 'I sure do love you,' she whispered."
"Chris tried to imagine John F. Kennedy among the votive lights and the pious, wrinkled women; John F. Kennedy with his head bowed down in prayer; 'I believe'… a détente with the Russians; 'I believe, I believe'… Apollo IV amid the rattlings of the rosary beads; 'I believe in the resurrection and the life ever'—"
"The raising of Lazarus was dim in the distant past. No one now living had heard his laughter."
"Any number of changes in the function of the brain can trigger a convulsion in the epileptic: worry, fatigue, emotional stress, even a particular note on a musical instrument."
"The difference between you and an epileptic is a matter of degree. That's all. Just degree. It is not a disease."
"Schizophrenia means a shattering of the personality."
"We use concepts like ‘consciousness’—‘mind’—‘personality,’ but we don’t really know yet what they are."
"When this dissociated material is sufficiently strong, or where the subject’s personality is disorganized and weak, the result can be schizophrenic psychosis."
"The subconscious mind is perhaps the bridge between two worlds."
"There are lunatic asylums all over the world filled with people who dabbled in the occult."
"She was always my friend before. And then after, it's like somebody else is inside me."
"I guess it's time we started looking for a psychiatrist."
"Escape from some conflict or emotional problem."
"It’s fairly extraordinary for a child of her age to be able to pull together and organize the components of a new personality."
"Children often feel that they are the ones rejected and sometimes assume the full responsibility for the departure of one of their parents."
"The fear of death thing... is it something that’s inherited?"
"I mean, where does this new personality come in?"
"The syndrome might also include epileptoid-like convulsions, hallucinations, and abnormal motor excitement."
"The second personality is simply the agent who handles the punishing."
"The entire world is having a massive nervous breakdown."
"For a murderer, a motive is an encumbrance, maybe even a deterrent."
"Your answers are being electronically recorded, Mr. Engstrom. Therefore, I want you to be absolutely positive."
"Not for a moment had Karl lost his poise and he held it even now as he calmly answered, 'No. I would not.'"
"Something flickered in the depths of Karl’s eyes, but then died as he insisted through narrowed lips, 'At movies!'"
"When she heard the sound of the front door closing, Chris was brooding at the bar in the study as she poured herself a vodka over ice."
"Her eyes still on her notes, Sharon probed at the silence in a strained, low voice."
"Chris heard the front door being opened, then closed, and, sighing, she lowered her hands and looked up."
"Chris stood rooted to the floor in horror, her hands pressing tightly against her cheeks."
"She was standing on the Key Bridge walkway, arms atop the parapet, fidgeting, waiting."
"I believe that there’s something inside of her that’s trying to kill her."
"The Church has criteria that have to be met for very good reasons."
"One is speaking in a language that the subject has never known before."
"It’s undeniable these days, although, as I said, it isn’t at all supernatural."
"The power of the mind controlled the blood flow."
"Most of the people who think they’re possessed are far more in need of a doctor than of a priest."
"You’re a real tough case, Father Karras, do you know that?"
"Each hour is a testimony how fleeting, yet how secure, how certain, is the great whole."
"Ah, there’s just nothing like a Gauloise for the nerves!"
"You join the Jesuits and leave your poor mother to die all alone."
"It's like part of my arm: very old… very battered."
"I believe that with a first name like Damien, I might even be content with the last name Glutz."
"I think belief in God is not a matter of reason at all; I think it finally is a matter of love: of accepting the possibility that God could ever love us."
"Enough of these and we have no need of Satan to manage our wars; these we manage for ourselves."
"The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us."
"I realized that God would never ask of me that which I know to be psychologically impossible; that the love which He asked was in my will and not meant to be felt as emotion."
"Who can really hope to know? And yet I think the demon’s target is not the possessed; it is us... the observers."
"Perhaps even Satan—Satan, in spite of himself—somehow serves to work out the will of God."