Every acting gig isn't the same, every writing job isn't the same, every live performance isn't the same - the challenge is the level of difficulty or ease, and that may vary.

The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.

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 book says we may be through with the past but the past ain't through with us.

Not only do I lie, I take real pleasure in lying, in the transmission of magic effects.

I love amazing people. I love dazzling them. That's why I think performing magic is one of the greatest things a person can do.

My father was the Formica King of Long Island, and my mother was the daughter of a Bengal Lancer in India.

If it sounds too good to be true, it always is.

I suppose that if I could only do one thing, a solid card effect would be pretty high on the list. That's the root of it all, sleight-of-hand. It's certainly the thing I feel most comfortable with.

I never talk much about my family, but my grandfather was friendly with these guys, with magicians and ventriloquists on the highest levels, and I was just interested.

Magic is a powerful art that can support a weak performer.

Adversity introduces a man to himself.

The whole world can become the enemy when you lose what you love.

Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

But responsibility hardens the heart. It must.

A very important thing is not to make up your mind that you are any one thing.

It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.

Children are all foreigners.

I am 67, but I'm not too old to make a fresh start.

I had a lifelong quarrel with God, but in the end we made up.

What we honor as prudence in our elders is simply panic in action.