Quotes

It was always very strange for me when I was young and would meet someone who geniunely seemed to be afraid of me. They couldn't separate me from the monster I became in a movie. You wouldn't believe how often people ask me to make my head spin around.

"I'm not doing this (film) as an art piece, I'm not doing it from my heart, as a statement of my beliefs or my philosophy. I'm working." Interview with The Los Angeles Times about Chained Heat (1983), 1983.

[on getting the role of "Reagan MacNeil" in The Exorcist (1973)] I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to be in Disney movies, I wanted to be in "Lassie," I wanted to be in "Flipper." I didn't want to be a monster.

Compassion and sharing: that's the true journey of the human spirit.

In 1997, when I got involved with animal rescue, the news media said that there was this particular breed of dog in America named a pit-bull, and if you came across a pit-bull, "It will attack! And you're going to die! Your child's going to die!" So it created a frenzy that everyone assumed was obviously truthful, because "the news is truthful." Well guess what? No, not always. Not only did, 30 years ago, the media give misinformation about who I was, but now they're doing it again, and it's very much - in my opinion - I call it irresponsible journalism.

[on making it in Hollywood[ Hollywood is a very difficult place. You may feel that you deserve to be part of it, and sometimes you just don't get that break. It is a hard business, and the word is business, but also enjoy it. It's a wonderful, wonderful craft, and if more people go out and do more independent films, do things that they want to do, they might just find a place for themselves in Hollywood.

America is not at a time when we are doing well... It is a very difficult time. Money is tight, and people are doing horrible things in society to others and to animals to make a buck, and it has to stop... You know how people say nowadays, "God, you know I can't get along with my neighbor, I can't get along with so-and-so..." People don't care about their brother, people won't help their brother... It's got to change, it has to change.

Not a day goes by that somebody doesn't say something about it, which is interesting. My life is possessed with "The Exorcist."