Teller Quotations

If you read Shakespeare's stage directions, all the gore and violence is right in there.

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.'

If there isn't at least the threat of violence in art, it tends to be kind of tiresome.

Given my absolute druthers, I would certainly like to see that every part of my body is used for spare parts for science.

The place we want to explore unpleasantness in the real world is in art.

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

Magic's about understanding - and then manipulating - how viewers digest the sensory information.

Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology. If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful.

I'm more apt to cry at something beautiful than at something sad.

Indian street magic tends to be very gory, blood and guts. One trick is for a magician to take a knife and appear to cut his kid's head almost off. The magician then says to the crowd, 'Well I can continue to cut off my son's head or you can all give me some money.' Then he wanders around and takes 10 rupees from everyone and restores his son.