Teller

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

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

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.

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.

Comedically, unpleasantness is great fun.

To most people who have a point of view, merely being on TV is an intrinsic good.

Onstage, I find absolutely nothing but exhilaration in not talking.

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

I'm a lazy sod.

Doing beautiful things is its own reward.

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

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.