Words matter. These are the best Teller Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The Boy Scouts of America is no longer entirely what people think it is. Essentially, it has been hijacked by religious conservatives.
In America, magic has never been an important part of peoples’ lives.
To most people who have a point of view, merely being on TV is an intrinsic good.
I always assumed I’d spend my life happily performing in artsy-fartsy little theaters.
People do not come to a Penn & Teller show to see a magic show. They just don’t. They come to see weird stuff that they can see no place else, that will make them laugh and make the little hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.
Neuroscientists are novices at deception.
If you do something that you’re proud of, that someone else understands, that is a thing of beauty that wasn’t there before – you can’t beat that.
People come up to me on the street and make some little joke – like they’ll say, ‘Excuse me, sir, what time is it?’ And I’ll say, you know, ‘5:15,’ and they’ll say, ‘Hey! Made you talk!’ And that’s merely a way of saying, ‘I know your work and I like you.’
I’m a lazy sod.
If you read Shakespeare’s stage directions, all the gore and violence is right in there.
If there isn’t at least the threat of violence in art, it tends to be kind of tiresome.
I’m more apt to cry at something beautiful than at something sad.
The silent thing onstage allows for a kind of intimacy that no conversation can have. If I just shut up, we’re forced to look at each other and really confront that moment.
Given my absolute druthers, I would certainly like to see that every part of my body is used for spare parts for science.
Onstage, I find absolutely nothing but exhilaration in not talking.
Doing beautiful things is its own reward.
As a kid, I was a Hitchcock lover; I cared about the dark side of things.
When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.
Magic’s about understanding – and then manipulating – how viewers digest the sensory information.
Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.
Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn’t mean it is simple.
People take reality for granted.
