William Peter Blatty Quotes

• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Men, House, Black

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• God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercials.

  William Peter Blatty

  Father, Devil, Doe

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• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Camouflage, Fancy, Facts

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• What looked like morning was the beginning of endless night

  William Peter Blatty

  Morning, Night, Endless

  William Peter Blatty (1971). “The Exorcist”

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• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Police, Stories, Detectives

  Interview with Lucy A. Snyder, www.lucysnyder.com. July 26, 1999.

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

  William Peter Blatty

  Devil, Wells, Stills

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• Procrastination is what we often call 'resistance.

  William Peter Blatty

  Procrastination, Resistance

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• Every man that ever lived craved perfect happiness, the detective poignantly reflected. But how can we have it when we know we’re going to die? Each joy was clouded by the knowledge it would end. And so nature had implanted in us a desire for something unattainable? No. It couldn’t be. It makes no sense. Every other striving implanted by nature had a corresponding object that wasn’t a phantom. Why this exception? the detective reasoned. It was nature making hunger when there wasn’t any food. We continue. We go on. Thus death proved life.

  William Peter Blatty

  Men, Perfect, Joy

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• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Believe, Order, Years

  "Fictional character: Col. Vincent Kane". The Ninth Configuration, www.imdb.com. 1980.

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• Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness... and perhaps even Satan - Satan, in spite of himself - somehow serves to work out the will of God.

  William Peter Blatty

  Evil, Work Out, Crucible

  William Peter Blatty (1971). “The Exorcist”

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• And the sad truth is that nobody wants me to write comedy. The Exorcist not only ended that career, it expunged all memory of its existence.

  William Peter Blatty

  Memories, Writing, Careers

  Interview with Lucy A. Snyder, www.lucysnyder.com. July 26, 1999.

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• Your thoughts are too dull to entertain.

  William Peter Blatty

  Dull

  William Peter Blatty (2010). “The Exorcist”, p.257, Random House

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• The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. His attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful.

  William Peter Blatty

  Powerful, Liars, Lying

  William Peter Blatty (2015). “William Peter Blatty on "The Exorcist": From Novel to Screen”, p.355, Macmillan

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

  William Peter Blatty

  Thinking, Matter, Belief

  William Peter Blatty (2015). “William Peter Blatty on "The Exorcist": From Novel to Screen”, p.10, Macmillan

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• When the filter is weakened by a powerful drug, what we see is not delusion but the truth.

  William Peter Blatty

  Powerful, Drug, Filters

  William Peter Blatty (2015). “Elsewhere”, p.122, Macmillan

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

  William Peter Blatty

  Children, War, Earth

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• You don't blame us for being here, do you? After all, we have no place to go. No home... Incidentally, what an excellent day for an exorcism.

  William Peter Blatty

  Home, Places To Go, Exorcism

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• Yet 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; as ultimately vile and putrescent; without dignity; ugly; unworthy.

  William Peter Blatty

  Thinking, House, Humanity

  William Peter Blatty (2015). “If There Were Demons Then Perhaps There Were Angels: William Peter Blatty’s Own Story of the Exorcist”, p.10, Macmillan

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• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Nice, Feelings, Definitions

  William Peter Blatty (2011). “Legion”, p.292, Macmillan

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

  William Peter Blatty

  Doe, Littles, Horror

  Interview with Lucy A. Snyder, www.lucysnyder.com. July 26, 1999.

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• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Life, Revenge, Circles

  "The Exorcist". Book by William Peter Blatty, 1971.

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• I'm not aware that I was consciously influenced by any director, though these things often happen unnoticed, submerged in the unconscious.

  William Peter Blatty

  Directors, Unnoticed, Unconscious

  Interview with Lucy A. Snyder, www.lucysnyder.com. July 26, 1999.

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• 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.

  William Peter Blatty

  Personality, Mind, Use

  William Peter Blatty (1971). “The Exorcist”

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• The terror drifted over georgetown like the sun over a blind mans eyes

  William Peter Blatty

  Eye, Sun, Blind

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• I didn't read The Haunting of Hill House until sometime early in the 1990's.

  William Peter Blatty

  House, Haunting, Hills

  Interview with Lucy A. Snyder, www.lucysnyder.com. July 26, 1999.

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