Michael Shannon

You can't escape this feeling of disintegration. The world is fragile. But you also can't let it ruin your life. I'm actually a pretty composed person. I guess people imagine I spend my life thinking about crazy, sinister things but I don't, really. It's not like I'm trying to exorcise any demons.

American Actor

Jodie Foster

In a weird way, that's the beauty of being an actor. You get to live out things that you're afraid of, and you get to say, 'Well, maybe I can get to the end of it and survive it intact and I can be the hero of my own story.' It's kind of a way of exorcising fear.

American Actress

John Logan

I couldn't write a happy movie or romantic comedy to save my life. Yes, Noel Coward's an idol, but his plays are serious to me. 'Private Lives' and 'Design for Living' both have an edge. Without psychoanalyzing myself, I think I exorcise my demons in my work.

American Producer

Ben Marcus

I work, and then I leave the office, and I'm with my kids and just sort of enjoy them on a visceral level, and I don't feel like I'm exorcising my own deep ideas about parenthood and about how my life will come into play in my work.

American Author

Skeet Ulrich

As an actor, you want to keep your demons to some extent, but you also have to exorcise them so you can use them instead of them using you.

Naomi Watts

I'm not this dark, twisted person. Yes, I have my demons and this is my way of exorcising them. It gets them out - and better out than in.

English Actress

Tituss Burgess

When I need to exorcise a demon, I grab whatever score is going to house the song I need to sing out of my system, and I sing it.

Yance Ford

Grief is a very complicated monster. There's no real exorcising of it. It has a different form every day.

American Director

Ruth Rendell

I don't exorcise anything with my writing. I'm sure people do, but I don't.

British Writer

Jimmy Kimmel

You don't need to exorcise your personal demons onstage.

American Celebrity

Often used in religious or mystical contexts, where a ritual is performed to remove spirits.

Ritual Context

Carries a sense of drama; might be used in hyperbole to emphasize difficulty of a task.

Dramatic Tone

Frequently appears in media depicting supernatural themes, like horror movies or novels.

Cultural References

Used metaphorically to describe the struggle of removing negative emotions or memories.

Metaphorical Usage

Can imply a process of self-improvement by confronting and overcoming personal issues.

Personal Improvement

Emphasizes intensity of the effort to rid oneself or something of a problem.

Figurative Expression

 or what we now recognize as schizophrenia, he was certain that this kind of illness had to come from evil spirits getting into the body. So the way of treating these diseases in early times was to, in some way or other, exorcise those evil spirits.

Sherwin Nuland: How...

 of a volatile inferno, where scientists are looking for signs that could end up saving thousands of lives. Masaya in Nicaragua is so feared that religious crusaders once tried to exorcise the devil out of its heart.

Exorcise