When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.
TellerRead
Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.
Interpretation
Magic often stems from dedication and effort that surpasses ordinary expectations.
This quote by Teller emphasizes that what may appear to be magical is often the result of hard work and commitment. It suggests that excellence and remarkable outcomes arise when individuals invest time and energy into their pursuits, going beyond what is typically anticipated.
In practice
In a motivational speech about perseverance in achieving goals.
When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.
People do not come to a Penn & Teller show to see a magic show. They just don't. They come to see weird stuff that they can see no place else, that will make them laugh and make the little hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.
The silent thing onstage allows for a kind of intimacy that no conversation can have. If I just shut up, we're forced to look at each other and really confront that moment.
I really believe that what happens one day affects the next, and I think that came from that experience of learning that if I told the score inning by inning, play by play, it built up to its natural climax.
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forewarmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack.
I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.
In depression . . . faith in deliverance, in ultimate restoration, is absent. The pain is unrelenting, and what makes the condition intolerable is the foreknowledge that no remedy will come - - not in a day, an hour, a month, or a minute . . . It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul.
I have had many successes and many failures in my life. My successes have always been for different reasons, but my failures have always been for the same reason: I said yes when I meant no.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.