Derren Brown Quotes

The real secret of magic lies in the performance.

Magic has both feet planted in cheap vaudeville and childish posturing; in dishonesty and therefore not in art.

But when I go off stage I don't have a deck of cards with me all the time.

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.

I consider myself a showman, and I love magic, and I love art, and I love performance, and they're all separate.

I wish what I do was all real. Some of it's real, some of it's an illusion and I try to blur the line between both, but unfortunately I've got to be honest with you. Taking a $1 bill and turning it into a $100 - unfortunately it's not real.

Magic is an art form where you lie and tell people you are lying.

When you're learning how to do magic, the first rule is 'never reveal a secret.' In a way, by telling someone I'm a magician, it kind of gives away the best secret of all... How interesting to take the magician out of the equation of a magic show.

A clever conjurer is welcome anywhere, and those of us whose powers of entertainment are limited to the setting of booby-traps or the arranging of apple-pie beds must view with envy the much greater tribute of laughter and applause which is the lot of the prestidigitator with some natural gift for legerdemain.

I think I'm just a comedian who's a pretty good con man, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

A magician pulls a rabbit from a hat, and actors pull truth from fiction.

That's the beauty of it. Have you seen the contraptions these magicians build to accomplish the most mundane feats? They are a bunch of fish covered in feathers trying to convince the public they can fly, I am simply a bird in their midst.

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.

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

Magicians will always tell you the trick is the most important thing, but I'm more interested in telling a story.

In circuses, there is a lot of magic. Things become other things.

I don't think you can say something is or isn't magic. That's what was cool about Houdini, because he was a magician who had a magic show, but he was also an escape artist, and they kind of, over time, blended together. They both kind of enhance each other, I think.

When I started out back in Louisville, there was Harry Collins. He was my first teacher. He saw that I was so obsessed with magic that he taught me the love of magic.

When we go to play, you flip around and flash around and everything, and then they're not gonna see nothin' but what their eyes see. Forget about their ears.

Magic is the oldest part of the show business profession. It can now be used as a forward-thinking tool to build a child's confidence. It has been an amazing part in many entertainers' lives, including Steve Martin and the late Johnny Carson.

If there are two things Penn & Teller stand for, it's the truth & lying, although not necessarily in that order.

For me, there is very little difference between magic and art. To me, the ultimate act of magic is to create something from nothing: It's like when the stage magician pulls the rabbit from the hat.

You can watch actors create their illusions, but if you don't see where they get the pigeons from, you don't really know how they're doing it.

When I was six years old, I fell in love with magic. For Christmas, I got a magic box and a very old book on card manipulation. Somehow, I was more interested in pure manipulation than in all the silly little tricks in the box.