- Demon: What an excellent day for an exorcism.
- Father Karras: You would like that?
- Demon: Intensely.
- Father Karras: But wouldn't that drive you out of Regan?
- Demon: It would bring us together.
- Father Karras: You and Regan?
- Demon: You and us.
- Father 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.
- Father Merrin: Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen to him. Remember that - do not listen.
- Demon: I'm not Regan.
- Father Karras: Well, then let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.
- Demon: And I'm the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps.
- Father Karras: If you're the Devil, why not make the straps disappear?
- Demon: That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras.
- Psychiatrist: Is there someone inside you?
- Regan: Sometimes.
- Psychiatrist: Who is it?
- Regan: I don't know.
- Psychiatrist: Is it Captain Howdy?
- Regan: I don't know.
- Psychiatrist: If I ask him to tell me, will you let him answer?
- Regan: No.
- Psychiatrist: Why not?
- Regan: I'm afraid.
- Father Merrin: I cast you out! Unclean spirit!
- Demon: Shove it up your ass, you faggot!
- Father Merrin: 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!
- Demon: Fuck him!
- Father Merrin: Be gone...
- Demon: Fuck him, Karras! Fuck him!
- Father Merrin: ...from this creature of God! Be gone! In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
- Demon: Mirabile dictu, don't you agree?
- Father Karras: You speak Latin?
- Demon: Ego te absolvo.
- Father Karras: Quod nomen mihi est?
- Demon: Bon Jour.
- Father Karras: Quod nomen mihi est?
- Demon: La plume de ma tante.
- Dr. Klein: Do you keep any drugs in your house?
- Chris MacNeil: No, of course not, nothing like that.
- Dr. Klein: Are you sure?
- Chris MacNeil: Well, of course I'm sure. I'd tell you. Christ, I don't even smoke grass.
- [Regan, possessed, is masturbating with a crucifix]
- Demon: Let Jesus fuck you, let Jesus fuck you. Let him fuck you.
- [Karras sees Merrin dead on Regan's bed and gently moves him onto the floor; he beats Merrin's chest with force and checks for a heartbeat]
- Father Karras: You son of a bitch!
- [attacks Regan]
- Father Karras: Take me! Come into me! God damn you! Take me! Take me!
- [the demon transfers to Karras; he is about to kill Regan but stops]
- Father Karras: NOOOO!
- [jumps out of the window and rolls down the stairs outside the apartment, mortally wounded. He dies moments after receiving last rites]
- Father Dyer: My idea of Heaven is a solid white nightclub with me as a headliner for all eternity, and they *love* me.
- 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.
- Tom, President of University: [discussing the case, referring to Karras] Well, he does know the background. I doubt there's any danger in just having him assist. There should be a psychiatrist present, anyway.
- Bishop Michael: What about the exorcist? Have you any ideas?
- Tom, President of University: How about Lankester Merrin?
- Bishop Michael: Merrin? Why, I'd a notion he was over in Iraq. I think I read he was working on a dig near Nineveh.
- Tom, President of University: Yeah, you're right, Mike, but he's finished. He came back three or four months ago. He's at Woodstock now.
- Bishop Michael: What's he doing there? Teaching?
- Tom, President of University: No, he's working on another book.
- Bishop Michael: Don't you think he's too old, Tom? How's his health?
- Tom, President of University: He must be all right, he's still running around digging up tombs. Besides, he's had experience.
- Bishop Michael: I didn't know that.
- Tom, President of University: Ten, twelve years ago, I think, in Africa. The exorcism supposedly lasted several months. I heard it damn near killed him.
- [2000 version]
- Father Merrin: [on his way to begin the exorcism] What is your daughter's middle name, Mrs. MacNeil?
- Chris MacNeil: Teresa.
- Father Merrin: What a lovely name.
- Chris MacNeil: You show me Regan's double, same face, same voice, everything. And I'd know it wasn't Regan. I'd know in my gut. And I'm telling you 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 for a fact that an exorcism wouldn't do any good. You tell me that!
- [2000 version]
- Lt. Kinderman: You go to films, Father Dyer? You like them?
- Father Dyer: Oh, sure.
- Lt. Kinderman: I get passes. In fact I've got a pass for the Crest tomorrow night. You'd like to go?
- Father Dyer: What's playing?
- Lt. Kinderman: "Wuthering Heights".
- Father Dyer: Who's in it?
- Lt. Kinderman: Heathcliff, Jackie Gleason, and in the role of Catherine Earnshaw, Lucille Ball. You're happy?
- Father Dyer: I've seen it.
- Lt. Kinderman: Another one.
- Father 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.
- Father 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.
- Chris MacNeil: Would you like some brandy in that, father?
- Father Merrin: Well, my doctor says I shouldn't, but thank God my will is weak.
- 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.
- [2000 version]
- Chris MacNeil: Well, give me an example. Like what specifically did she say?
- Dr. Klein: Specifically, Mrs. MacNeil, she advised me to "keep my fingers away from her goddamned cunt."
- Regan: Mother? What's wrong with me?
- Chris MacNeil: It's just like the doctor said. It's nerves, and that's all. You just take your pills and you'll be fine, really. Okay?
- Chris MacNeil: [as the Ouija planchette pulls away] You really don't want me to play, huh?
- Regan: No, I do. Captain Howdy said no.
- Chris MacNeil: Captain who?
- Regan: Captain Howdy.
- Chris MacNeil: Who's Captain Howdy?
- Regan: You know, I make the questions and he does the answers.
- Chris MacNeil: Oh, Captain Howdy...
- Father 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.
- Regan: But ya like him.
- Chris MacNeil: Of course I like him. I like pizzas, too, but I'm not gonna marry one.
- Father 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 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 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.
- Demon: Give us time... Let the girl die... I am no one... I am no one... Fear the priest... Fear the priest... Merrin... Merrin.
- Chris MacNeil: Oh no, that was no spasm. I got on the bed. The whole bed was thumping and rising off the floor and shaking. The whole thing, with me on it!
- Dr. Klein: Mrs. MacNeil, the problem with your daughter is not her bed; it's her brain.
- Regan: Captain Howdy, do you think my mom's pretty?... Captain Howdy?... Captain Howdy, that isn't very nice!
- Chris MacNeil: Well, maybe he's sleeping.
- Chris MacNeil: How does a doctor end up as a priest?
- Father Karras: It's the other way around; the Society put me through medical school.
- Chris MacNeil: We've got rats in the attic. You better get some traps.
- Karl: Rats?
- Chris MacNeil: Mm-hmm. 'Fraid so.
- Karl: But the attic is clean.
- Chris MacNeil: All right, then we've got clean rats.
- Father Dyer: [taking away Karras' whiskey] I reckon I saved him from a great temptation.
- Father Karras: Stealing's a sin.