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...
There is only one.
Regan MacNeil
Linda Blair · 18 quotes
Chris MacNeil
Ellen Burstyn · 15 quotes
Father Damien Karras
Jason Miller · 14 quotes
Father Merrin
Max von Sydow · 7 quotes
Dr. Klein
Barton Heyman · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Father Damien Karras & Regan MacNeil (3), Father Damien Karras & Chris MacNeil (3), Father Damien Karras & Father Merrin (3)
The Exorcist quotes
Page 2 of 3It'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
Could see about a transfer, Damien.
I need re-assignment, Tom. I want out of this job. It's wrong. It's no good.
Tom
You're the best we've got.
Yeah, not 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.
Look, I'm only against the possibility of doing your daughter more harm than good...I can't do it. I need evidence that the church would accept as signs of possession...like her speaking in a language she's never known or studied...Look, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon. She says she's the devil himself. Now if you've seen as many psychotics as I have, you realize that's the same thing as saying you're Napoleon Bonaparte. You asked me what I think is best for your daughter. Six months, under observation, in the best hospital you can find.
I'm telling you that that thing upstairs isn't my daughter. Now I want you to tell me that you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with my daughter except in her mind. YOU TELL ME YOU KNOW FOR A FACT THAT AN EXORCISM WOULDN'T DO ANY GOOD! YOU TELL ME THAT!
Mama, I could take you somewhere where you'd be safe. You wouldn't be alone. There would be people around. You know, you wouldn't be sitting here listening to a radio.
Mother
[speaks in Greek]
...You understand me? This is my house and I'm not going no place. Dimmy, you're worried for something?
No, Mama.
Mother
You're not happy. Tell me, what is the matter?
Mama, I'm all right, I'm fine, really I am.
Why her? Why this girl?
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.
Kinderman It's strange. The deceased comes to visit - stays only 20 minutes. And leaves all alone a very sick girl. And speaking plainly, Mrs. MacNeil, it isn't likely he would fall from a window. Besides, a fall wouldn't do to his neck what we found, except maybe one chance in a thousand. Nope, my hunch, my opinion - he was killed by a very powerful man - point one. And the fracturing of his skull - point two. Plus the various other things we mentioned would make it very probable, probable, not certain, that the deceased was killed and then pushed from your daughter's window. But nobody was in the room, except your daughter. So how can this be? It could be one way. If someone came calling between the time Miss Spencer left and the time you returned...
Judas Priest. Just a second.
Kinderman Well, this desecration in the church. Do you think this has anything to do with witchcraft?
Maybe. Some rituals use the Black Mass. Maybe.
Kinderman And now, Dennings, you read how he died?
In a fall.
Kinderman Let me tell ya how, and please Father, confidential. Burke Dennings, good Father, was found at the bottom of those steps leading to M Street with his head turned completely around - facing backwards.
It didn't happen in the fall?
Kinderman It's possible. Possible, however -
...unlikely.
Kinderman Exactly. So on the one hand, we've got a witchcraft kind of murder, and on the other hand a Black Mass type desecration in the church.
You think the killer and the desecrator are the same?
Kinderman Maybe somebody crazy. Somebody with a spite against the church. Some unconscious rebellion.
A sick priest - is that it?
Kinderman Look, Father, this is hard for you. Please, I understand, but for priests on the campus here, you're the psychiatrist. You know who was sick at the time, who wasn't. I mean, this kind of sickness. You'd know that.
I don't know anyone who fits that description.
Kinderman Ah! Doctor's ethics! If you knew, you wouldn't tell, huh?
No, I probably wouldn't.
Kinderman Not to bother you with trivia, but a psychiatrist, in sunny California no less, was put in jail for not telling the police what he knew about a patient.
Is that a threat?
Kinderman No, I mention it only in passing.
Incidentally, I mention it only in passing. I could always tell the judge it was a matter of confession.
I cast you out! Unclean Spirt!
Shove it up your ass, you ****!
In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is he who commands you! It is he who flung you from the gates of Heaven to the depths of Hell!
**** Him!
Be gone...
**** Him, Karras! **** Him!
...from this creature of God!
Psychiatrist
When I touch your forehead, open your eyes. How old are you?
Twelve.
Psychiatrist
Is there someone inside you?
Sometimes.
Psychiatrist
Who is it?
I don't know.
Psychiatrist
Is it Captain Howdy?
I don't know.
Psychiatrist
If I ask him to tell me, will you let him answer?
No!
Psychiatrist
Why not?
I'm afraid.
Psychiatrist
If he talks to me, I think he'll leave you. Do you want him to leave you?
Yes.
Psychiatrist
I'm speaking to the person inside of Regan now. If you are there, you too are hypnotized and must answer all my questions. Come forward and answer me now.
Psychiatrist
[Regan growls and contorts on the bed]
Are you the person inside of Regan? Who are you?
[Regan slams her fist into the Psychiatrist's groin]
You're not my mother!
Don't listen...Get out!
What an excellent day for an exorcism.
You'd like that?
Intensely.
But wouldn't that drive you out of Regan?
It would bring us together.
You and Regan.
You and us.
[possessed voice, to father Karras]
You killed your mother. You left her alone to die.
[possessed voice, to Father Merrin]
Stick your **** up her ass, you mother-**** worthless ****!