The Exorcist Quotes
Burke Dennings: Shall we summon the writer? He's in Paris.
Chris MacNeil: Hiding?
Burke Dennings: Fucking.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Burke Dennings: Tell me, was it public relations you did for the Gestapo or community relations?
Karl: I'm Swiss!
Burke Dennings: Oh, of course. And you never went bowling with Goebbels before either, I suppose? Nazi bastard.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Dr. Barringer, Clinic Director: It looks like a type of disorder that you rarely ever see any more, except in primitive cultures. We call it a somnambuliform possession. Quite frankly, we don't know much about it except that it starts with some conflict or guilt that eventually leads to the patient's delusion that his body's been invaded by an alien intelligence, a spirit if you will.
Chris MacNeil: Look, I'm telling you again and you'd better believe it: I'm not about to put her in a goddamn asylum! And I don't care what you call it! I'm not putting her away!
Dr. Barringer, Clinic Director: I'm sorry.
Chris MacNeil: You're sorry! Jesus Christ, 88 doctors and all you can tell me with all of your bullshit is...
Dr. Barringer, Clinic Director: There is one outside chance of a cure. I think of it as shock treatment. As I say, there is an outside chance...
Chris MacNeil: Will you just name it, for God's sake? What is it?
Male Doctor: Do you have any religious beliefs?
Chris MacNeil: No.
Female Doctor: What about your daughter?
Chris MacNeil: No, why?
Dr. Barringer, Clinic Director: Have you ever heard of exorcism? It's a stylized ritual in which rabbis or priests try to drive out the so-called invading spirit. It's pretty much discarded these days, except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as a sort of embarrassment. It has worked, in fact, although not for the reason they think, of course. It was purely the force of suggestion. The victim's belief in possession helped cause it. And just in the same way, this belief in the power of exorcism can make it disappear.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Dr. Barringer, Clinic Director: There is one outside chance for a cure. I think of it as shock treatment - as I said, it's a very outside chance... Have you ever heard of exorcism? Well, it's a stylized ritual in which the rabbi or the priest try to drive out the so-called invading spirit. It's been pretty much discarded these days except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as a sort of an embarrassment, but uh, it has worked. In fact, although not for the reasons they think, of course. It's purely a force of suggestion. The victim's belief in possession is what helped cause it, so in that same way, a belief in the power of exorcism can make it disappear.
Chris MacNeil: You're telling me that I should take my daughter to a witch doctor? Is that it?
TV Show: The Exorcist
Demon: Give us time... Let the girl die... I am no one... I am no one... Fear the priest... Fear the priest... Merrin... Merrin.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Demon: I'm not Regan.
Father Damien Karras: Well, then let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.
Demon: And I'm the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps.
Father Damien Karras: If you're the Devil, why not make the straps disappear?
Demon: That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Demon: Mirabile dictu, don't you agree?
Father Damien Karras: You speak Latin?
Demon: Ego te absolvo.
Father Damien Karras: Quod nomen mihi est?
Demon: Bon Jour.
Father Damien Karras: Quod nomen mihi est?
Demon: La plume de ma tante.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Demon: What an excellent day for an exorcism.
Father Damien Karras: You would like that?
Demon: Intensely.
Father Damien Karras: But wouldn't that drive you out of Regan?
Demon: It would bring us together.
Father Damien Karras: You and Regan?
Demon: You and us.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Demon: You killed your mother! You left her alone to die! Bastard!
Father Damien Karras: Shut up!
TV Show: The Exorcist
Demon: Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Damien Karras: [praying over Merrin's body] Ego te absolvo in nomine Patris, et Filiii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Damien Karras: I think it might be helpful if I gave you some background on the different personalities Regan has manifested. So far, I'd say there seem to be three. She's convinced...
Father Merrin: There is only one.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Damien Karras: It's my mother, Tom. She's alone. I never should have left her. At least in New York, I'd be near, I'd be closer.
Tom, President of University: Could see about a transfer, Damien.
Father Damien Karras: I need re-assignment, Tom. I want out of this job. It's wrong. It's no good.
Tom, President of University: You're the best we've got.
Father Damien Karras: Am I really? It's more than psychiatry, and you know that Tom. Some of their problems come down to faith, their vocation and meaning of their lives, and I can't cut it anymore. I need out. I'm unfit. I think I've lost my faith, Tom.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Damien Karras: There are no experts. You probably know as much about possession than most priests. Look, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon. She says she's the devil himself. And if you've seen as many psychotics as I have, you'd know it's like saying you're Napoleon Bonaparte.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Damien Karras: There isn't a day in my life when I haven't felt like a fraud. I mean priests, doctors, I've talked to them all. I don't know anyone who hasn't felt that.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Damien Karras: Why her? Why this girl?
Father Merrin: I think the point is to make us despair. To see ourselves as... animal and ugly. To make us reject the possibility that God could love us.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Dyer: Listen, if you ever go up there again will you take me along?
Astronaut: What for?
Father Dyer: First missionary on Mars.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Father Dyer: My idea of Heaven is a solid white nightclub with me as a headliner for all eternity, and they *love* me.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Psychiatrist: Is there someone inside you?
Regan MacNeil: Sometimes.
Psychiatrist: Who is it?
Regan MacNeil: I don't know.
Psychiatrist: Is it Captain Howdy?
Regan MacNeil: I don't know.
Psychiatrist: If I ask him to tell me, will you let him answer?
Regan MacNeil: No.
Psychiatrist: Why not?
Regan MacNeil: I'm afraid.
TV Show: The Exorcist
Dr. Taney: Pathological states can induce abnormal strength. Accelerated motor performance. Now, for example, say a 90 pound woman sees her child pinned under the wheel of a truck. Runs out and lifts the wheels a half a foot up off the ground - you've heard the story - same thing here. Same principle, I mean.
Chris MacNeil: So what's wrong with her?
Dr. Klein: We still think the temporal lobe.
Chris MacNeil: Oh what are you talking about, for Chrissakes? Did you see her or not? She's acting like she's fucking out of her mind, psychotic, like a... split personality or...
Dr. Taney: There haven't been more than a hundred authentic cases of so-called split personality, Mrs. MacNeil. Now I know the temptation is to leap to psychiatry. But any reasonable psychiatrist would exhaust the somatic possibilities first.
Chris MacNeil: So, what's next?
Dr. Taney: A pneumoencephalogram, I would think. Pin down that lesion. It will involve another spinal.
Chris MacNeil: Oh, Christ.
Dr. Taney: What we missed in the EEG and the arteriograms could conceivably turn up there. At least, it would eliminate certain other possibilities.
TV Show: The Exorcist