In the winters, I enrolled in the hotel management program at Cornell University. I naively thought that I knew something about sleight-of-hand, entertainment and food, and that would be all I needed.

I'm probably the only kid in history whose parents made him stop taking music lessons. They made me stop studying the accordion.

I certainly was performing before my writing was published, because I was performing when I was very young. And the thing is I'm very comfortable on stage, so a large portion of my act did come from ad-libs.

The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.

Writing is the only thing in my life that doesn't get easier. It just doesn't.

I love amazing people. I love dazzling them. That's why I think performing magic is one of the greatest things a person can do.

I'm pretty fortunate that I'm in the films I'm in largely because the directors have asked me to be in them. I'd love to do more of them, but the writing and historical stuff I'll probably always do.