Joan Robinson Quotes

Misdirection is one of my strengths.

There is not a physicist in the world who can perceive when a parlor magician palms off playing-cards.

When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.

I realised how much misdirection is in stunt co-coordinating. It's similar to magic, the tricks we use to make people think the stunt is real. I also have a lifelong fascination with gambling cheats. I'm not one, but I do have a fascination with it.

Great liars are also great magicians.

The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.

Magic is all about directing attention. If I didn't want you to look at my right hand then I don't look at it.

In my business, my job is to make people believe they are seeing something they're not seeing.

Appearances are not reality; but they often can be a convincing alternative to it. You can control appearances most of the time, but facts are what they are. When the facts are too sharp, you can craft a cheerful version of the situation and cover the facts the way that you can covered a battered old four-slice toaster with a knitted cozy featuring images of kittens.

Like an audience entertained by a magician, we allow ourselves to be deceived by those with a stake in persuading us to ignore reality.

Like a stage magician, the con artist misdirects suspicion. While everyone’s watching for him to pull a rabbit out of a hat, he’s actually sawing a girl in half. You think he’s doing one trick when he’s actually doing another. You think that I’m dying, but I’m laughing at you.

Tell the truth or trump-but get the trick.

Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand

Where there's smoke, there's bound to be mirrors.

Winston Churchill is always expecting rabbits to come out of an empty hat.

All magic is 'Here’s a quarter, now it’s gone. You’re a jerk. Now it’s back. You’re an idiot. Show’s over.'

I hate giving away tricks, you have to create an impression and not an image. You want audiences to look at certain places and not look at other places. And when you've got the help of modern-day abilities with technology, it's a much more natural look.

Then again, what are liars if not great magicians?

I am often dishonest in my techniques ... I happily admit to cheating, it's all part of the game. I hope some of the fun for the viewer comes from not knowing what's real and what isn't

For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.

The whole world is run on bluff.

I'm a con artist in that I'm an actor. I make people believe something is real when they know perfectly well it isn't.

I misdirect the audience, so they have no idea where they are or who they're listening to.

Hey, I fool the camera. I'm a liar, a magician.

The key is for the audience never to know, so I have a plan B for every illusion.