Derren Brown Quotes

My interest was magic, believe it or not. I became an amateur magician and did something like 400 magic shows through my teen years.

Magic and new technology have always walked hand in hand - even back in the days of Robert Houdin.

Magic, historically, has been a man doing tricks with no wider story behind it.

I did magic all my life from the time I was 12, and I like to tap into the magic from history.

I like to say magic is the world's second oldest profession, a mystical and often awe-inspiring spectacle that, throughout the ages, has blended superstition, trickery and religion.

There is no magic. There are only magicians.

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.

I'd like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago.

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.

He spent hours and hours and hours practising these conjuring tricks. It's just such a curious thing.

I'm not a big fan of doing it because I get really frustrated because I can't do any of the tricks, but I love to watch magic.

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.

I feel very guilty doing magic because you're deceiving somebody.

If you want to talk about magic, the stuff that blows me away is the stuff that's done close up.

I'm friends with Criss Angel. Criss has offered me a million times to go downstairs and see the setup. I don't want to see it. I just want to go, 'God, how did you do that?'

The real secret of magic lies in the performance.

Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.

Magic is like special effects live, and I love to perform, so it sounded like doing magic tricks were a good way to entertain people.

Magic is really performing special effects live.

If you do sleight of hand without trying to cheat someone, that's what magic is.

I never quite know how to describe what I do. I normally just say, 'Oh, I'm a magician', which probably puts fairly naff ideas in people's minds but is pleasantly conversation-stopping.

Magicians are the most honest people in the world; they tell you they're gonna fool you, and then they do it.

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

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