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

Magic is a powerful art that can support a weak performer.

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

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.

Dai Vernon, the greatest sleight of hand figure in the history of the art, rarely performed. But he invented magic and had an enormous influence on the whole range of sleight of hand. And so often the magic he was doing was to fool other magicians.

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 always read what I write out loud, and I did that long before any radio thing. My editor finds that unusual.