Doctor Joseph Wanless Quotes in Firestarter (1984)

Doctor Joseph Wanless: Ever since this child was born, her father has been trying to inhibit her use of those powers. But what if his control had weakened now?

Captain Hollister: Why would he lose control, now, after all those years?

Doctor Joseph Wanless: Ask yourself this question. How exhausting must it have been for Victoria and Andrew McGee when this child was an infant? The bottle is late, the baby cries, and at that moment, one of her toys right there in the crib beside her bursts into smokey flame.

Captain Hollister: Joe, she's just a little girl. She can light fires, yes. But you're making her sound like Armageddon!

Doctor Joseph Wanless: Yes!... and that's what it might well be. Suppose lighting fires is just the tip of the iceberg?

Captain Hollister: I don't know what your talking about.

Doctor Joseph Wanless: I am talking about a talent that is directly linked to this child's pituitary gland; UNDEVELOPED pituitary gland. What happens when she becomes adolescent and that sleeping gland wakes and becomes, for 20 months, the most powerful force in the human body? Suppose we have a child here who, someday, is capable of creating a nuclear explosion simply by the power of her will?

Captain Hollister: [Laughs] That's insane.

Doctor Joseph Wanless: Is it? Is it? Then allow me to progress from insanity to utter lunacy. Suppose there is a little girl out there, somwhere today... this morning!... who has within her, lying dormant at present... the power someday to crack the very planet in two like a china plate in a shooting gallery?

Captain Hollister: [Falls silent]