David Blaine

Basically, I was a kid growing up with a single mother in Brooklyn. ”

I do a lot of research on what people have done in the past. ”

I remember finding a Houdini book at the library and seeing an image of him chained on the side of a building. He looked so intense and scary, and I couldn't get that image out of my head. That started building up my love of magic. ”

I've always liked artists like Chris Burden, who would take performances, put them in galleries, and then do things that were on the edge. ”

Magic's an art where you use slight of hand or illusion to create wonder. And I was just intrigued with that idea. ”

I just believe that the feeling of wonder is amazing. I am pushing myself as far as I can humanly push myself... I can only hope for the best and expect the worse. ”

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

I hope people remember me as a guy who brought magic to the people. You know, pushed the boundaries of wonder. ”

As a kid I used to hold my breath longer than anybody else, and then I heard stories about people accidently underwater for 45 minutes - how do you recover from that? It's not a miracle. Something allows us to survive. ”

As a kid, I always was obsessed with Houdini. ”