Videodrome

"The television screen has become the retina of the mind's eye. That's why I refuse to appear on television, except on television. Of course, O'Blivion was not the name I was born with. That's my television name. Soon all of us will have special names, names designed to cause the cathode ray tube to resonate."

"After all, there is nothing real outside our perception of reality, is there? You can see that, can't you?"

"The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena — the videodrome. The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore television is reality, and reality is less than television."

"North America's getting soft, padrone. And the rest of the world is getting tough. Very, very tough. We're entering savage new times, and we're going to have to be pure... and direct... and strong... if we're gonna survive them. Now, you and this, uh, cesspool you call a television station... and, uh, your people who wallow around in it... and, uh, your viewers... who watch you do it— you're rotting us away from the inside. We intend to stop that rot."

"Your head, we have you head in the box."

"You'll forgive me if I don't stay around to watch. I just can't cope with freaky stuff."

"You know me and I sure know you, everyone."

"[handing Bianca the videotape] Careful... it bites."

"Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!"

"I am the video word made flesh."

"First it controls your mind... then it destroys your body."

"First it controlled her mind, then it destroyed her body... Long live the new flesh!"

"A shocking new vision."

"A terrifying new weapon."

"A vision of enormous impact!"

"Videodrome is a bioelectrical addiction. Videodrome is the ultimate addiction."

"The movie goes into more than the relatively simple issue of morality, like the ways in which television does alter us physically. It's what Marshall McLuhan was talking about — TV as an extension of our nervous systems and our senses."

"I was once on a talk show with a psychiatrist who worked at the Clark Institute with criminals. He had seen my film, Videodrome and said to me, “I’m almost afraid to be sitting here next to you.” He was totally mystified as to how I could empathize with those states of mind and he obviously, could not. It is mostly intuitive with me. One of the reasons I make a movie is that I’m then in a position where I have to analyze and I enjoy that process.*My images come out of the process of making film. I do really think that movies work on the level of dream logic. However realistic or narrative they might like to think they are, they are dreamlike."