My mother was really loving and wonderful and tough as hell.

I see people's need to dream, people's need to escape - you see it! That's why people come to comedy shows, that's why they come to your movies ... We're so needed in this world. Not as much as medicine , but to dream for a while.

There was a guy named Ed Mishell. He was this grandfatherly guy who did all the illustrations for the catalogs and reviewed magic effects for the magic magazines, so all of the magic dealers would send him magic effects for free-it was a great deal. His basement was full of this stuff. He took me under his wing, and he would sneak me into the Society of American Magicians meetings in New York. It's the world's oldest magic organization.

When you're a guy and meet a girl the first time, you do whatever it takes.

You can feel better about yourself in a very short period of time depending on the kind of magic that you are doing.

I was teaching magic at NYU when I was 16.

We all possess the need to dream.