The book that Damien reads and references throughout the film is called "Six O'Clock Saints". Popular in the UK in the 1950s, it is surprising that any parent would give a copy to their child, as the screenwriter
Frank Cottrell Boyce points out at 03:08 in the DVD commentary, since it contains all the gruesome stories that Damien tells in class, plus many more. Its inclusion is a sort of homage to Martin Scorsese, who, according to Boyce, has cited it in interviews as one of his favorite books growing up and that it gave him a wider understanding of the human experience than had been revealed to him as a child. In Roger Ebert's 3/18/2005 review of the film, Ebert mentions that Boyce "got the inspiration for the screenplay from an interview in which Martin Scorsese said he was reading the lives of the saints."
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