William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blattyis an American writer and filmmaker. The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his most well-known novel; he also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, for which he won an Academy Award, and wrote and directed the sequel The Exorcist III...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 January 1928
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
house four steps
I lived in Georgetown in the late 70s about four houses down from the steps.
morning night endless
What looked like morning was the beginning of endless night
directors unnoticed unconscious
I'm not aware that I was consciously influenced by any director, though these things often happen unnoticed, submerged in the unconscious.
believe order years
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.
memories writing careers
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.
real creepy way
I tried to make every bit of it as creepy as I could. And I had the same response you do. I feel the same way. The hospital scenes, that procedure was so real.
thinking awards watches
I get cassettes near Academy Award time of every movie that's made that thinks it has some kind of chance for a nomination - that's when I watch my movies
littles doe horror
Horror does not interest me, and so I know little of its practicioners, old or current
house haunting hills
I didn't read The Haunting of Hill House until sometime early in the 1990's.
dull
Your thoughts are too dull to entertain.
personality mind use
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.
evil work-out crucible
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.
police stories detectives
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.
thinking house humanity
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.