I think that if I'd not made the movie, I might be a veterinarian in Connecticut. I would probably be married with some children. That's probably the way it would be. But because of the film [the Exorcist], I don't have a normal life by somebody else's standards.

If you know me, I don't live in this dismal world. I mean, I like to have fun. My friends are comedians.

I was so sad from losing two of my dogs and my mother. I had this vision of all these animals sitting behind bars. They had no control and were scared. That's why I got into fostering and adopting animals out.

Now I figured this out recently, pretty much if you ask anybody to be part of a movie, they get a smile on their face. They do! People are like, Movie! Ya know, I don't know. There's something that's magical about it.

Of all the projects I've worked on, I've never worked with another director like Billy Friedkin. I think he's a genius.

People always joke that 'dog' spells 'god' backwards. They should consider that it might be the higher power coming down to see just how well they do, what kind of people they are. The animals are right here, right in front of us. And how we treat these companions is a test.

Warner Brothers had to hire [a stunt double] and no one thought a child could do this. Billy Friedkin came to me before we were filming [The Exorcist] and said "if you do not do all of this film, the film will be a joke." It's why they stripped the makeup down to the bare minimum, a piece on my chin, piece across my mouth that disfigured my mouth. You have scars here. Take away my eyebrows. It was my real hair. Shampoo was put in it that dried.