William Peter Blatty Quotes

He started his engine and turned on the windshield wipers in time to see a tall old man stepping out of the cab. He paid the driver, then turned and stood motionless under a misty streetlamp's glow, staring up at a window of the house like a melancholy traveler frozen in time. As

In order for life to have appeared spontaneously on Earth, there first had to be hundreds of millions of protein molecules of the Ninth Configuration. But, given the size of the planet Earth, do you know how long it would take for just one of these protein molecules to appear by chance? Roughly 10 to the 243rd power, billions of years; and I find that far, far more fantastic than simply believing in a god.

As far as God goes, I _am_ a nonbeliever. Still am. But when it comes to a devil
well, that's something else.

How many husbands and wives must believe they have fallen out of love because their hearts no longer race at the sight of their beloveds!

I have never read horror, nor do I consider The Exorcist to be such, but rather as a suspenseful supernatural detective story, or paranormal police procedural.

active catatonics. Among

Something unspeakable left the room.

What book had this girl read that had enabled her unconscious mind to simulate

Like the brief doomed flare of exploding suns that registers dimly on blind men's eyes, the beginning of the horror passed almost unnoticed; in the shriek of what followed, in fact, was forgotten and perhaps not connected to the horror at all.

Something else," he told Atkins. He stood with his nose an inch away from the sergeant's, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his coat. "What does Lucifer mean?"
"Light Bearer."
"And what is the stuff of the universe?"
"Energy."
"What is energy's commonest form?"
"Light."
"I know." And with that, the detective walked away, listing slowly through the squad room and down the stairs. He didn't come back.

Yes, I think so. A sign of the zodiac. I think Gemini.

There it lies, I think, Damien ... possession; not in wars, as some tend to believe; not so much; and very rarely in extraordinary interventions such as here ... this girl ... this poor child. No, I tend to see possession most often in the little things, Damien: in the senseless, petty spites and misunderstandings; the cruel and cutting word that leaps unbidden to the tongue between friends. Between lovers. Between husbands and wives. Enough of these and we have no need of Satan to manage our wars; these we manage for ourselves ... for ourselves.

The exorcist should not believe too readily that a person is possessed by an evil spirit; but he aught to ascertain by the signs by which a person possessed can be distinguished from one who is suffering from some illness; especially one of a psychological nature. Signs of possession may be the following: ability to speak with some facility in a strange language or to understand it when spoken by another; the facility of divulging future and hidden events; display of powers which are beyond the subject's age and natural condition; and various other conditions which, when taken together as a whole, build up the evidence.

God was alien and cruel,

Good writing is rhythm.

I get cassettes near Academy Award time of every movie that's made that thinks it has some kind of chance for a nomination - that's when I watch my movies.

One more thing about evolution. They keep saying that it's chance, all chance, and that it's simple. Billions of fish kept

That's right. He was smacking his lips a little, that's all." "He was smacking his lips a little?" "Well, yes." Kinderman

Stepping lithe and incredulous from the study; of Karras, emerging bewildered from the kitchen while the nightmarish poundings and croakings continued. Merrin went calmly up the staircase, a slender hand like alabaster sliding upward on the banister. Karras came up beside Chris, and together they watched from below as Merrin entered Regan's bedroom and closed the door behind him. For a time there was silence. Then abruptly the demon laughed hideously and Merrin swiftly exited the room, closed the door, then moved quickly down the hall while behind him the bedroom door opened again and Sharon poked her head out, staring after him with an odd expression on her face. Merrin descended the staircase rapidly and put out his hand to the waiting Karras.

She advised me to keep my fingers away from her goddamned cunt.

Well, the research into it affected me. And the novel, it very much strengthened my faith.

You see,the trouble with the signs in the sky, my dear morsel, is that once having seen them, one has no excuse. Have you noticed how few miracles one hears about lately? Not our fault, Karras. Don't blame us. We try!

Horror does not interest me, and so I know little of its practicioners, old or current.

Out, Himmler! Out of my sight! Go and visit your club-footed daughter! Bring her sauerkraut! Sauerkraut and heroin, Thorndike! She will love it! She will - !

Karras showered and then dressed in a T-shirt and trousers. Sitting down to his desk, he discovered a carton of Camel non-filters, and beside it a key that was labeled LANGUAGE LAB and another

She watched as a beer truck lumbered by with a clink of quivering warm, wet promises.

Regan had the physical syndrome of possession. That much he knew. Of that he had no doubt. For in case after case, irrespective of geography or period of history, the symptoms of possession were substantially constant. Some Regan had not evidenced as yet: stigmata; the desire for repugnant foods; the insensitivity to pain; the frequent loud and irrepressible hiccuping. But the others she had manifest clearly: the involuntary motor excitement; foul breath; furred tongue; the wasting away of the frame; the distended stomach; the irritations of the skin and mucous membrane. And most significantly present were the basic symptoms of the hard core of cases which Oesterreich had characterized as genuine possession: the striking change in the voice and the features, plus the manifestation of a new personality.

Looked up at the crucifix over the altar, and slowly his expression grew hard and demanding. What's your part in this monkey business? Will you answer? Do you want to call a lawyer? Shall I read you your rights? Take it easy. I'm your friend. I can get you protection. Just answer me a few little questions, all right?

Gliding spiderlike, rapidly, close behind Sharon, her body arched backward in a bow with her head almost touching her feet, was Regan, her tongue flicking quickly in and out of her mouth while she hissed sibilantly like a serpent. Sharon stopped then screamed as she felt Regan's tongue snaking out at her ankle. That day, everywhere Sharon went, Regan followed.

All-good, like the vain, capricious, cruel God of Job? With all of eternity at His disposal, what fiendish new tortures might He not devise? A limited

What looked like morning was the beginning of endless night

Mom, my bed was shaking.

rats?" "I just said that." "But the attic is clean." "Well, okay, we've got tidy rats!" "No rats." "Karl, I heard them last night." "Maybe plumbing," Karl probed; "maybe boards." "Maybe rats! Will you buy the damn traps and quit arguing?" Bustling away, Karl, said, "Yes! I go now!" "No not now, Karl! The

The Kurd stood waiting like an ancient debt.

Oh, I think so. Yeah. Oh, well, sure. A 'type-token' ratio, I suppose, would be as good a way as any to work that out, and with samples of a thousand words or more, you could just check the frequency of occurrence of the various parts of speech." "And would you call that conclusive?" "Pretty much. You see, that sort of test would discount any change in the basic vocabulary. It's not the words but the expression of the words; the style. We call it 'index of diversity.' Very baffling to the layman, which, of course, is what we want." The director smiled wryly. Then he nodded at the tape in Karras's hands. "And so this other person's voice is on that one?" "Not exactly." "Not exactly?

This making you nauseous a little?

I lived in Georgetown in the late '70s about four houses down from the steps.

Adieu, sucky speed-reading critics and reviewers!"
Terry Dare, gothic author in Blatty's book "Elsewhere", just before he crosses over.

For days or even weeks. It isn't rare to find destructive, even criminal behavior. There's such a big change, in fact, that two or three hundred years ago people with temporal lobe disorders were often considered to be possessed by

We mourn the blossoms of May because they are to whither; but we know that May is one day to have its revenge upon November, by the revolution of that solemn circle which never stops
which teaches us in our height of hope, ever to be sober, and in our depth of desolation, never to despair.

Sharon shook her head. "He's never come here," she said. "And besides, he was in Boston that night at some convention." "He's a salesman?" asked Kinderman. "A lawyer.

From the cab stepped a tall old man. Black raincoat and hat and a battered valise. He paid the driver, then turned and stood motionless, staring at the house. The cab pulled away and rounded the corner of Thirty-sixty Street. Kinderman quickly pulled out to follow. As he turned the corner, he noticed that the tall old man hadn't moved but was standing under the streetlight glow, in mist, like a melancholy traveler frozen in time.

Do you know what she did? Your cunting daughter?

It was a green stone head of the demon Pazuzu, personification of the southwest wind.

They Said, "what sign can you give us to see, so that we may believe you?" - John 6: 30 - 31

You do not believe although you have seen... - John 6: 36 - 37

WHAT WE GIVE TO THE POOR IS WHAT WE TAKE WITH US WHEN WE DIE.

We use concepts like "consciousness"
"mind"
"personality," but we don't really know yet what these things are.' He was shaking his head. 'Not really. Not at all.

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I think the demon's target is not the possessed; it is us ... the observers ... every person in this house. And I think - I think the point is to make us despair; to reject our own humanity, Damien: to see ourselves as ultimately bestial, vile and putrescent; without dignity; ugly; unworthy. And there lies the heart of it, perhaps: in unworthiness. For 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.

You're a very strange man," said Amfortas.

drunk right now, Amfortas suspected, or high on amphetamine,

Would you like to hear a nice definition of jealousy? It's the feeling that you get when someone you absolutely detest is having a wonderful time without you.

We have every indication that he died of fright.

Yes, of course," said Kinderman. "It's very strange. But then it leaves us

The love had grown cold, and in the night he heard it whistling through the chambers of his heart like a lost and gently crying wind.

Merrin began buttoning up the cassock. "Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon." The demon!

Regan killing Dennings? What madness! He envisioned her shoving

Why would an eye want to form?

Didn't," Chris told him. "She was also sedated when last we spoke?" "Yes, she was." "I thought I saw her at her window that day." "Well, you're mistaken." "It could be. Perhaps so. I'm not sure." "Listen, why are you asking all this?" "Well, a clear

Carrot-and-stick reinforcement' the behaviorists are telling us is needed for this bird to carry out these operations, thirteen different types of construction jobs? B. F. Skinner did a very good thing: in World War

But a myth, to speak plainly, to me is like a menu in a fancy French restaurant: glamorous, complicated camouflage for a fact you wouldn't otherwise swallow, like maybe lima beans.

The shaven head and the man in white pants and the black woolen

Never was he conscious that his thoughts were prayers; only that the prayers were never answered.

Chris made a telephone call to her doctor in Los Angeles to ask him for a referral to a local psychiatrist for Regan.

Earth is a homicide victim. We lose our children. There are wars. Disease. And God comes strolling by like a cosmic Billie Burke.

I've been campaigning like anything for restoring these changes. For 27 years. I wrote a book about it, well, a portion of the book was devoted to these scenes and why they should have been in the movie.

Maybe pick it up by mistake with the cleaning?" "It is there." "With the cleaning?" "In the closet." "No, it isn't. I looked." About to speak, Willie tightened her lips and scowled. Karl had walked in. "Good evening, Madam." He went to the sink for a glass of water. "Did you set those traps?" asked Chris. "No rats." "Did you set them?" "I set them, of course, but the attic is clean." "Tell me, how

He could not bear to search for Christ again in stench and hollow eyes; for the Christ of pus and bleeding excrement, the Christ who could not be. In

Her shoes were comfortable. They reflected her hope for the evening.

The sun sinks to rise again; the day is swallowed up in the gloom of night, to be born out of it, as fresh as if it had never been quenched.

Henri Bergson thought the principal function of the brain was to filter out most of reality so that we could focus on the tasks of earthly life," he said. "When the filter is weakened by a powerful drug, what we see is not delusion but the truth.

In forgetting, they were trying to remember

There, you see? I didn't curse. Don't you agree that I handled the situation demurely?

I'm not saying I'm against evolution. It's okay. Here's the story on reptiles, however. Think this over. They come up on

No, I tend to see possession most often in the little things, Damien: in the senseless, petty spites and misunderstandings; the cruel and cutting word that leaps unbidden to the tongue between friends. Between lovers. Between husbands and wives. Enough of these and we have no need of Satan to manage our wars; these we manage for ourselves.

For I think belief in God is not a matter of reason at all; I think it finally is a matter of love.

Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it.