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.
Ricky JayRead
Like every art form, there are jealousies and angers and competitiveness in magic. But there's camaraderie among magicians, whether you perform it for a living or you're an enthusiast.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Magic, like other art forms, has its competitive nature, but it also fosters a sense of community among practitioners.
In this quote, Ricky Jay highlights the duality present in the world of magic. While it is true that jealousy, anger, and competition exist among magicians, there is also a strong sense of camaraderie and support among them, regardless of whether they are professional performers or hobbyists. This underscores the idea that within artistic fields, the process of creation and shared appreciation can create bonds that transcend rivalry.
Themes
MagicArtCamaraderieCompetitionJealousy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech at a magic convention to emphasize the importance of community among magicians.
More from Ricky Jay
All quotes βDai 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.
Ricky JayRead
I'm much more interested in lesser-known eccentrics and characters and performers. Like Matthew Buchinger, who was born in Germany in 1674, had no arms or legs and yet did magic, and had 14 kids, and made the most extraordinary calligraphy.
Ricky JayRead
For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.
Ricky JayRead
I grew up like Athena β covered with playing cards instead of armor β and, at the age of seven, materialized on a TV show, doing magic.
Ricky JayRead
Similar quotes
Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.
David OgilvyRead
If a serious statement is defined as one that may be made in terms of waking life, poetry will never rise to the level of seriousness. It lies beyond seriousness, on that more primitive and original level where the child, the animal, the savage, and the seer belong, in the region of dream, enchantment, ecstasy, laughter. To understand poetry we must be capable of donning the child's soul like a magic cloak and of forsaking man's wisdom for the child's.
Johan HuizingaRead
They're not particular whether you're playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.
Dizzy GillespieRead
As a dramatist, you have 200 choices at every fork in the road. But the audience will reject it if you make the wrong choice, if they feel you are trying to shape the character in a way that suits you. It rings false immediately. People can sense when you're being cynical or schematic.
Peter MorganRead
Playwriting gets into your blood and you can't stop it. At least not until the producers or the public tell you to.
T. S. EliotRead
I bid the chords sweet music make, And all must follow in my wake.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead