Top 120 William Peter Blatty Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “At the edge of his dreams, there was often a sound like the faint, distant cry of someone in distress, and for minutes after waking, he would feel the anxiety of some duty unfulfilled.”

— William Peter Blatty

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

— William Peter Blatty

53. “How many husbands and wives,” Merrin uttered sadly, “must believe they have fallen out of love because their hearts no longer race at the sight of their beloveds.”

— William Peter Blatty

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

— William Peter Blatty

55. “What book had this girl read that had enabled her unconscious mind to simulate.”

— William Peter Blatty

56. “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.”

— William Peter Blatty

57. “The child was slender as fleeting hope.”

— William Peter Blatty

58. “Well, neither does anyone else. We use concepts like ‘consciousness’ – ‘mind’ – ‘personality,’ but we don’t really know yet what they are. So when I start talking about something like multiple or split personality, all we have are some.”

— William Peter Blatty

59. “If instead of just clay I could take all the prettiest things Like a rainbow, Or clouds or the way a bird sings, Maybe then, dearest Mommy, If I put them all together, I could really make a sculpture of you.”

— William Peter Blatty

60. “Have you ever heard of exorcism, Mrs. MacNeil?”

— William Peter Blatty

61. “Mom, my bed was shaking.”

— William Peter Blatty

62. “Prime Neuron Untriggered? First Decider Undecided?”

— William Peter Blatty

63. “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.”

— William Peter Blatty

64. “Good luck with the world.”

— William Peter Blatty

65. “And perhaps even Satan – Satan, in spite of himself – somehow serves to work out the will of God.”

— William Peter Blatty

66. “Are you the person in Regan?” asked the psychiatrist. Regan nodded. “Who are you?” “Nowonmai,” she answered gutturally. “That’s your name?” Another nod. “You’re a man?” She said, “Say.” “Did you answer?” “Say.” “If that’s ‘yes,’ nod your head.” Regan nodded. “Are you speaking in a foreign language?” “Say.” “Where do you come from?” “Dog.” “You say that you come from a dog?” “Dogmorfmocion,” Regan replied.”

— William Peter Blatty

67. “There was a strangeness in the house. Like settling stillness. Weighted dust.”

— William Peter Blatty

68. “An anguished moan escaped from Karras as he bowed his head above the Host. He struck his breast as if it were time and murmured, “Domine, no sum dignus... I am not worthy... say but the word and my soul shall be healed.”

— William Peter Blatty

69. “Do you hunger, Saint Merrin? Here, I give you both nectar and ambrosia, I give to you the daily bread of your God!” croaked the demon mockingly as Regan excreted diarrhetically. “For this is my body! Now consecrate that, Saint Merrin!”

— William Peter Blatty

70. “The heave of his muscular chest and shoulders stretched his T-shirt, distorting the stenciled word PHILOSOPHERS inscribed across the front in once-black letters now faded by repeated washings.”

— William Peter Blatty

71. “Well, it’s sometimes the symptom of a type of disturbance in the chemicoelectrical activity of.”

— William Peter Blatty

72. “The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but.”

— William Peter Blatty

73. “This was like childhood, this grief.”

— William Peter Blatty

74. “Fantasy playmate.”

— William Peter Blatty

75. “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.”

— William Peter Blatty

76. “Oh, I know you don’t believe in the spirit world, Chris. But I do. And if I’m right, perhaps the bridge between the two worlds is what you yourself just mentioned, the subconscious mind. All I know is that things seem to happen. And, my dear, there are lunatic asylums all over the world filled with people who dabbled in the occult.”

— William Peter Blatty

77. “No, autosuggestion would explain that, he recalled, as well as reports that, in certain instances, the mentally ill seemed able to unconsciously direct their bodies to emit a variety of odors.”

— William Peter Blatty

78. “Was the universe eternal?”

— William Peter Blatty

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

— William Peter Blatty

80. “But your daughter doesn’t say she’s a demon; she insists she’s the devil himself...”

— William Peter Blatty

81. “Like the brief doomed flare of exploding suns that registers dimly on blind men’s eyes, the beginning of the horror passed almost unnoticed;.”

— William Peter Blatty

82. “Booming and yet muffled, croaking, like an amplified premature burial, it called out “Merriiiiinnnnnn!” And then the massive and shiveringly hollow jolt of a single sledgehammer blow against the bedroom wall. “God.”

— William Peter Blatty

83. “Bill, the point is that right in the middle of this horror there’s a creature called man who can see that it’s horrible. So where do we come up with these notions like ‘evil’ and ‘cruel’ and ‘unjust’? You can’t say a line looks a little bit crooked unless you’ve got a notion of a line that’s straight.”

— William Peter Blatty

84. “He wondered why love had waited for this distance, waited for the moment when he need not touch, when the limits of contact and human surrender had dwindled to the size of a printed Mass card tucked in his wallet: In Memoriam...”

— William Peter Blatty

85. “Whenever she grinned, her entire face appeared to crinkle.”

— William Peter Blatty

86. “Chris explained. Beginning on the day after Regan’s birthday – and following Howard’s failure to call – she had noticed a sudden and dramatic change in her daughter’s behavior and disposition. Insomnia. Quarrelsome. Fits of temper. Kicked things. Threw things. Screamed. Wouldn’t eat. In addition, her energy seemed abnormal. She was constantly moving, touching, turning.”

— William Peter Blatty

87. “Roses. Elvira. He had warned her grimly that failure to check herself into a clinic within two weeks would result in his dogging her trail with warrants until he had evidence to effect her arrest. Yet.”

— William Peter Blatty

88. “Methylphenidate.”

— William Peter Blatty

89. “That you ever existed is a thought that gives me shelter; that men could make you up is a thought that gives me hope; and the thought that you might exist even now would give me safety and a gladness that I could not contain.”

— William Peter Blatty

90. “To keep up with the times these days, it seems you have to be a little bit demented. – “William F. Kinderman”.”

— William Peter Blatty

91. “Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness,” he brooded. “And perhaps even Satan – Satan, in spite of himself – somehow serves to work out the will of God.” Merrin.”

— William Peter Blatty

92. “Very true, but then a lot of the confessions were voluntary.” “So who would volunteer such things?” “Doubtless people who were mentally disturbed.” “Ah, another reliable source!” “Oh, well, you’re probably right about that too, Lieutenant. I’m just playing devil’s advocate.” “You do it so well.” “Look, one thing that.”

— William Peter Blatty

93. “The arms of pain crush time as they will.”

— William Peter Blatty

94. “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.”

— William Peter Blatty

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

— William Peter Blatty

96. “He dared not love again and lose. That loss was too great, that pain too keen.”

— William Peter Blatty

97. “Abruptly sagging, Chris stared at the floor. “Go ahead,” she said softly. “Do whatever you have to. Just make her well.” “May.”

— William Peter Blatty

98. “The psychiatrist motioned Klein to come over to him. “Let’s get her tranquilized,” he whispered. “Maybe I can talk to her.”

— William Peter Blatty

99. “Well, the test was negative,” he said, then described the procedure, explaining that in clonus the alternate flexing and releasing of the foot would have triggered a run of clonic contractions. But as he sat at his desk, Klein still seemed worried. “Has she ever had a fall?” he asked.”

— William Peter Blatty

100. “Item: The typewritten sheet of paper containing the text of the blasphemous altar card discovered at Holy Trinity had been checked for latent fingerprints. Impressions had been found on both sides. Some had been made by Damien Karras. But still another set had been found that, from their size, were adjudged to be those of a person with very small hands, quite possibly a child. Item:.”

— William Peter Blatty