I'd sold the book first. Actually to a paperback publisher. I had nothing. I just had the idea.

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.

I've been campaigning like anything for restoring these changes. For 27 years. I wrote a book about it, well, a portion of the book was devoted to these scenes and why they should have been in the movie.

Well, the research into it affected me. And the novel, it very much strengthened my faith.